One by One
by ApostolicShadowNinjaGirl
Summary: Alfred Jones lives in Washington DC and goes to a high-end highschool with several ambassadors children. One day one of the students disappeared and shortly after, showed up in the school, in more than one piece. After that certain students began to die, one by one. Will Alfred and his sidekicks Arthur, Francis, Matthew, and Gilbert be able to save the day? Rated T for gore.
1. It Begins

**Hi! So yeah, I got the idea for this story from an extreme want to write something Hetalia, and from an AMV about America. Anyway this is the first time I've written anything from POV so I'm not sure how good that'll turn out, but we'll see! I hope you like this. Oh and one last thing, I'm really sorry for certain characters foul mouths. I would make them not curse but then they just wouldn't be themselves. Please review! Pretty please? With a cherry on top?**

**If I owned Hetalia there'd be even more awesome Prussia!**

* * *

Alfred

September 24, 2012

7:10am

Jones's house

* * *

I woke up to the bright light of the morning sun through my bedroom window. I sat up and stretched and yawned before looking at the clock. It's a little blurry without my glasses but I can still tell I slept in. "Oh crap! I thought I set my alarm last night." I muttered to myself as I pulled myself out of my bed. I grabbed one of my uniform shirts and one of the pairs of uniform pants off the floor. I sniffed the pants and decided they'd be okay for today, but I needed to do laundry this afternoon or I wouldn't have any pants for tomorrow. I pulled my shirt over my head and jumped into my pants, heading for the door at the same time, and barely avoiding falling.

I was in the hall before I remembered my shoes and my glasses. I can't believe I forgot them! I ran back into my room and put on my shoes and my glasses then went down the hall and the stairs into the kitchen.

When I got to the kitchen Amelia and Matthew were there finishing pancakes that Matthew probably made. "You're late." My big sister Amelia; happy as usual. At 18 she's only one year older than me and goes to the same school but she thinks she rules the house since my parents aren't usually here because of their jobs. She crossed her arms over her uniform-which she didn't like because she couldn't expose her mid-drift-and glared at me. "This is the fourth time this year, and we've only been in school a week! You have no excuse." Really I'm not sure why she's here anyway. Last year she asked my parents if she could live by herself in our vacation cabin we never use that's not very far outside the city.

"There's a few pancakes left if you want them." Matthew said. Matthew is my 15 year old cousin from Canada. He came to live with my family after his parents divorced three years ago. Originally it was only supposed to be for a month while they got everything settled, but in the end he had begged to stay with us and they'd given in, so he became a permanent part of my family. I've never been overly close to Amelia so it was nice to have a little brother.

"Thanks Matt!" I smothered the two remaining pancakes in syrup and then practically swallowed them whole. "Heh, you always make the best pancakes Matt!"

"Thanks." Matthew said, but it was kinda hard to hear him since he's so quiet.

"It's time to go." Amelia stomped out the door, grabbing her purse and the keys to her motorcycle on the way. I still don't think it's fair she got a motorcycle and a car, while I only got a car.

I looked at Matt "Ready to go?"

"Yes." He stood up and picked his backpack up.

"Okay then!" I picked up my backpack too and then we went to my car.

* * *

12:08pm

Washington International High School-Cafeteria

* * *

I sat down at my usual table where Matthew and some of the others were already eating. Being the big expensive private school it is, my school has a bunch of ambassador's kids in it, and I've made a point to try and be friends with all of them! Right now Arthur Kirkland, the English or British or whatever ambassador's 17 year old kid is sitting across from Matt, fighting with Francis Bonnefoy, who is the French ambassador's 17 year old son, and he is sitting next to Matt. But that's nothing new; the two of them always fight. Kiku Honda is the son of the Japanese ambassador and is a year older than me. He's sitting next to Arthur watching them fight like always. Next to him is Feliciano Vargas, who is loud fun, loves pasta, and is one of the three children of the Italian ambassador. He's a year younger than me. Currently he's shoving pasta down his throat and trying to talk to Ludwig –the youngest son of the German ambassador, who is his best friend and sitting next to him-about girls, but Ludwig is ignoring him and focusing on eating. A little farther down is Yao Wang from China; he is my age and likes to cook. Then there's Ivan Braginski who is eating and trying to hide from his creepy younger sister Natalia who is looking for him.

"Oh, hello Alfred." Kiku said in his normal polite way.

"Yo Kiku, how's it goin?" That reminds me of another reason I like hanging around these guys: their accents.

"I am well Alfred, how are you?" Kiku has always been I nice guy but he's way too polite. I need to figure out how to break him of that habit.

"Heheh, all cool here dude!" I took a big bite of my sandwich.

"F*** off you b******! Go sit somewhere else!" It's Lovino, no doubt about it. With his Italian accent and foul mouth you could tell it's him from a mile away. Lovino is the oldest of the Italian three being a year older than I am.

"Ha-ha, calm down Lovi, let's just pick a seat." That is Antonio the Spanish ambassador's 18 year old son. He's Lovino's best friend, I think they've known each other for a long time, but I'm not really sure how they met.

"Hey Toni, hey Lovi!"

"Oh, hello Alfred!" Toni called back in his friendly way.

"Don't call me that!" Lovino shouted at me.

"But you let Toni do it!" All he could do to that was grumble before sitting across from his brother. I so won that one! Toni sat on his other side.

"Antonio!" Caterina Vargas the middle Italian, also Toni's girlfriend, ran up with her plate of food and sat next to him. "You jerk; you could have waited for me!" The girl sounded just like a female version of her older brother.

"Shut up b****, you shoulda got her earlier!" I'm not really sure how Toni can stand being around the two of them all the time.

"Caterina!" Elizabeta Héderváry is best friends with Caterina and is the daughter of the Hungarian ambassador. She was dragging along her Austrian boyfriend, Roderich Edelstein, who is kinda uppity.

"Hi Lizzy!" Caterina ignored Lovino's current string of curses and began chatting happily with Liz. Rod just sat across from her grumpily. Or maybe it's snobbishly, I'm not sure.

But by now the table was almost filled, the whole group of us has never been able to fit at one table anyway, and it's just first come, first serve.

"Hey, Al!" I stopped eating for a minute and looked up to see Gilbert walking towards me. He's my age and in most of my classes, and we're friends. He's also Ludwig's older brother, and even though Ludwig pretends he hates Gilbert, it's obvious, even to me, that that's not true.

"Hey Gil!" He sat in the seat beside me and ignored the look Lovino gave him.

"The awesome me is here, with my not so awesome food." I looked at his food and I could tell he got the stuff they scrape off the bottom of the containers and throw together, then pretend it's actually edible.

"Ugh man that's nasty."

"Give me some of your food!" He reached for what remained of my hamburger which I quickly shoved into my mouth.

"Ah-uh. Sorry, I don't give my burgers to anyone!"

"Yeah I know."

I noticed Heracles Karpuci come up with a plate of food and sit next to Arthur. He fingered his food a little bit before starting to eat it. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he's asleep. Actually he pretty much sleeps through everything. I have absolutely no idea how he passes his classes with such good grades, unless it's all the philosophy he's into.

The last two spots at the table were shortly occupied by Basch Zwingli who's the kid of the ambassador from Switzerland, and Bella the daughter of the Belgian ambassador. Basch never, and I mean never, takes sides in any fight except his own, unless of course his side just happens to be the same as someone else's. Bella is friendly with everyone, but especially with the other girls. Lovino flirted with her once, but after she responded by kissing his cheek he started trying to avoid her. I think it's kinda funny!

Just after I had finished eating my hamburger Toni started trying to say something, but nobody except the people directly around him. He kept trying until Ludwig took mercy on him. He stood up and slammed his hands into the table, shaking everything on it, and startling everyone except Gil. I guess he's used to it. "EVERYBODY SHUT UP! ANTONIO IS TRYING TO SPEAK!" I wonder if he just enjoys yelling at people…

"Aheheh, thanks Ludwig." Toni said cheerfully and stood up. "Any of you guys still here after the sports practice this afternoon is done can come to my house for a swimming party! Tell the others too when you see them. That's all I wanted to say!" I guess it's a sort of back to school party? I guess it doesn't really matter why though, I love parties! And judging by the other guys who will probably still be here after the sports meet today's chatter, so do they.

* * *

3:56 pm

Washington International High school-Football field

* * *

So today was our first meet since tryouts a week earlier. Naturally I'm the quarterback, I mean who else could they pick? I'm the strongest, and fastest out of us, so of course I'm the best for the position. Gil and Ludwig are both on the team this year-due to my encouragement-even though they know little about football. They are getting better though. Other than us three, the only person from our little "important international political kids" group thing, is the kid from Denmark, Mathias. He's strong, and has pretty much figured football out since he was on the team last year too, so he's pretty good. His best friends usually hang out in the bleachers and watch him. There's Tino from Finland, Berwald from Sweden, Emil from Iceland, and Lukas from Norway. Berwald is standing there, in the somewhat disturbing way he does, behind Tino who is sitting nervously in the stands, Lukas seems to be pestering Emil about something.

"So, American, you ready to get beat at your own game by the awesomeness of me?!" Gil stood threateningly over one of the smaller, younger, backup players, who seemed to be so nervous he was almost shaking. He's definitely one of those little spoiled rich kids who wanted to be cool so he joined the football team. But of course maybe Gil's strange hair and eye color has something to do with it too.

"Idiot, you won't be beating him, he's on your team!" Ludwig told his big brother. He seems to get easily annoyed.

"Actually, you might be today." Mathias said.

"What?"

"Yeah they make mini teams out of us during practice sometimes and we play like that." I said as I noticed the little guy that Gil had been intimidating slink off from the corner of my eye.

"So…What exactly do we do?" Ludwig asked me.

"You guys didn't watch the videos I emailed you?"

"Yeah! We awesomely smash people while throwing a weird looking ball around!" Well, at least Gilbert seems…enthusiastic.

At this point we were distracted from our little conversation by the sound of squealing girls. Probably the cheerleaders. My sister Amelia is on the cheer squad as well as the softball team, and she told me that they were short on male cheerleaders this year so I decided to help them out and recruit some guys to help them out. It took forever to find someone but finally the guy from Poland, Feliks, said he would do it, and he practically dragged his friend Toris from Lithuania into it. Amelia wasn't too happy that some of my foreign friends were on the squad but she said "We need guys, so I guess I can deal." Pfff. I still don't know what she has against them.

I hadn't looked at the cheerleaders when I heard Mathias and Gilbert start snorting then snickering then straight out laughing, while Ludwig groaned and covered his eyes. When I looked to see what was so funny I didn't see it at first. "What's so funny guys?" All I saw was a bunch of cheerleaders.

"Can you not see Feliks?" Mathias asked me. I looked closer at the approaching cheerleaders and noticed one of the blond haired girls was actually a certain blond haired boy named Feliks. Actually he looks surprisingly good in a miniskirt. I feel kinda sorry for Toris though, who's just a few steps behind him in his male cheerleader uniform and looking very embarrassed.

"Hey guys, do I look, like, fabulous in my uniform or what?" Feliks asked when they reached us.

"Heh, you look fine…for a girl!" Mathias snorted.

"Why are you in a girl's uniform?" I asked him.

"Elizabeta said it'd be, like, a cool idea, ya know?"

"I asked him not to." Toris said quietly.

"Like, relax bro, it's only for today." I caught Amelia rolling her eyes at me from amidst a group of her girlfriends.

"So did you guys hear about Antonio's party?" I asked.

"Yeah, we'll totally be there!"

"Mm-hmm, Berwald and Tino can't go, but me, and Lukas and Emil can." Mathias said.

"I'll be there, couldn't miss out on one of my less awesome bud's parties!" Gil is a good friend of mine, but is also part of a little gang that's made up of him, Antonio, and Francis. Originally they had called themselves "the good friends trio" but after everyone in the school knew they were responsible for most of the pranks pulled in the school, they were dubbed "the bad friends trio" then when they also started to gang up on girls and flirt with them, and to beat up random guys, everyone started calling them "the bad touch trio." Whatever.

"How do you plan to get there, brother?" Ludwig said, somewhat sarcastically. It's not that the two boy's can't drive, it's just their parents-like many of the other's-weren't going to let them until they were of legal driving age in their native country.

Gilbert's face fell "I…uh…I'll just, uh…" he stuttered.

"You guys can ride with me and Matt!" Since Matt's on the hockey team he's still here too. "But we'll be sure not to leave until after soccer practice is out." Most of the other guys are on the soccer team, and one time we got to the house hosting the party before the actual kid who owned the house got there and he hadn't told his housekeeper that he was having a party, so she called the police on us. It was a long night of explanations after that, and ever since we've been careful not to get there before the host.

"Oh hey, do you like, have room for Toris and me too?"

"Haha! I'm sure we can squeeze you in somewhere!"

"Thank you Alfred." Toris spoke up. Just then the coach walked towards us blowing his whistle, followed by a yelling cheerleader coach.

* * *

6:02pm

Washington International High school-parking lot

* * *

Practice was tough today. Gil and Ludwig were pretty funny to watch though. They got confused so many times, and that poor little guy that Gil had threatened earlier got his promised beating when Gil spotted him during one of the plays. The poor guy was on the same team and everything, but when Gil saw him, he tackled him, then pinned him to the ground and started punching him, before realizing that the guy had already dropped the ball. The coach, Ludwig, Mathias, and another guy all had to drag Gil off the poor little dude. The little guy was obnoxious, and arrogant, and had it coming though.

"Which one is your car?" Toris asked me.

I looked around for a minute before spotting my blue convertible, then I pointed at it. "That's it there."

"Oh wow, it's very nice." Toris said, running his hand over the smooth blue paint.

"Yeah I know!"

"Get in!" Feliks shouted at him before opening the passenger door and shoving him into it.

"H-hey, Feliks, I-I don't think I should-"

"Of course you should!"

"Oh great, the awesome me shouldn't have to sit in a back seat." Gilbert complained as he climbed in followed by Ludwig and Feliks.

"Hahaha, dude, relax!" I slid my hand over the white apulstery in my car, then put the key in and let the top down. I revved up my car and we were off! The streets were busy, but I don't really care! If you live your life all worked up about these things then you'll never be happy! I wish Amelia would realize that. It would make my life so much easier. We'd been stuck at the same red light for about five minutes before I decided to turn on some music. I opened the compartment I keep it in and flipped through some CDs. I got to the most recent Toby Mac CD and stopped. It's not like I'm a big time Christian or anything (Just in case you're wondering or worried, this probably has no real importance in the story, but I'm a Christian plus it's a little tribute to the original Americans), but I do go to church sometimes, and sometimes (more often than church) I listen to Christian music. Toby Mac is one of my favorites. Even my sister who hates Christian music likes his music.

I popped the CD in and Toris looked at my choice interestedly. "Toby Mac? I don't think I've heard of him. But then I'm still fairly new to American music."

"Yeah he's cool." I thumped my hands on the steering wheel to the beat as the traffic started moving again.

"He's some Christian guy, but I don't guess he's too bad." Gilbert spoke up from the back. He'd heard his songs before when he'd rode with me.

"It's got a nice beat." Feliks commented nodding his head to it.

I turned the music up full blast and started singing with it as it reached the chorus

_"And where would I be~, without you?_

_I'd be packin' my bag when I need to stay,_

_I'd be chasin' every breeze that blows my way,_

_I'd be buildin' my kingdom just to watch it fade,_

_Away~,_

_It's true, _

_That's me without you-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo,_

_That's me without you-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo,_

_That's me without you-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo,_

_Don't know where I'd be~, without you!"_

I'mpretty sure everyone liked it, but it's not like it really matters since it's my car. But anyway after a few more songs we arrived at Antonio's house. Most of the athletic kids had shown up; Bella, Elizabeta, Caterina, and Lin Yi Ling from Taiwan, are all on the girls volleyball team and they all showed up, then there's Antonio of course, Feliciano, Lovino, Francis, Kaoru from Hong Kong, and Yong Soo Im from South Korea. Then there's also Mathias, Lukas, and Emil. Arthur is on the soccer team too but couldn't make it because of something or another with his little brother, and Ivan is on the Hockey team but his sister drives him and his little sister around- "Oh my God! Hockey! Matt! I left Matt!"

"What?" Antonio asked me.

"I left Matt at school! I forgot him! Oh man, this is not good. How could I do that to him!"

"Poor little Mathew, what a horrible brother you are." Francis admonished me.

Right then the door bell rang and Antonio ran to get it. He opened the door "Hello?"

Amelia was standing there, staring him down. Then she stepped sideways and pushed Matt in. "Tell Alfred he forgot something." Then she turned and walked off "He's lucky my motorcycle's a two seater." She muttered getting on her motorcycle and driving away.

"I'm so sorry Matt! I didn't mean to!" I ran over to Matt, but he just shrugged it off. Sadly this isn't the first time this has happened.

* * *

8:00pm

Antonio Carriedo's house

* * *

"Al, I think we need to go." Matt told me quietly. I looked away from my soda and at my watch.

"Oh man, you're right we need to get home before mom and dad!" I stood up from my position on the couch and waved to the other guys on my way to the door. "Bye guys, see you later, the party was awesome Toni!"

"Yes, thank you for inviting us, it was fun." Matt said following me."

"Hey Al wait for us!" Gil shouted and ran after me followed by Ludwig.

I paused for a second in my walk towards the door "Hey Toris, Feliks, I can't take both of you but if one of you want, you can still ride with me."

They looked at each other for a second then Toris said "Well, I kind of need to be home as quickly as possible…"

"Go ahead then." Feliks said waving him off. "I'll like, be fine. See you tomorrow."

"Uh, ok then." Toris stood up and walked to the door where I was waiting. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah."

The five of us piled into my car, with Matt beside me this time, and I drove off. First I stopped at Toris's house which was the closest one, then at Gilbert and Ludwig's house. After that Matt and I went home. Amelia wasn't there, so I assumed she's back at _her_ cabin. It's just not fair. I was perfectly happy to crawl into my bed after a long day of school, sports, and an awesome party.

* * *

Feliks

8:43pm

Carriedo's street

* * *

So after Al left and took all those other guys with him the party started to wind down. By eight thirty most of the others had left too, and at eight forty Toni said we all had to go because his parents would be home soon, and they had told him we all had to be gone. So now here I am outside his house. It's dark and I've got the nervous feeling, and nobody could give me a ride home or walk to my house with me. I usually don't mind this kind of thing, but for some reason it's really scary to me tonight… Oh well I guess it's just me. Nothing's going to happen. So let's go…

I don't know. It's really dark in the direction I have to go. I'm kinda scared to leave the light outside Toni's house. I looked around. There's nobody around. Everyone else has already left, and this expensive neighborhood doesn't get much traffic at night, since non residents can only visit with permission. I guess I should get started. I looked down at my feet and then back at the street. Slowly I started to walk, and I wondered if I would feel better if I had worn something darker. Of course I never would! My fabulous pink shirt makes me feel more confident, and is especially great for parties.

As I walked in the dark I slowly started to feel better. Really I don't know what was wrong with me. This neighborhood is totally safe and mine isn't far from here.

"Feliks Łukasiewicz." Confidence is gone. But of course I can't show whoever is behind me that.

"What?" I turned towards the voice. Unfortunately I was facing towards the light and all I could really tell was that it was someone with hair that went to around their shoulders. I crossed my arms irretatedly, trying to suppress my growing fear.

"Good." A feminine sounding voice said before the woman lunged at me. Before I could move or make any sounds she had tackled me to the ground and shoved a stinky cloth in my face. I tried to fight back but as I did I could feel my attempts growing weaker. I think it's something to do with how this cloth smells. Maybe its drugged or something.

"Wh-what…are…you…" I attempted to ask as my vision blacked out, and the world around me seemed to float away.

* * *

**Wow, this is the longest chapter I've ever written! Anyway I have quite a few first with this! It's my first, first person veiw point, and somewhat present time thingy. It's also the first time I've put a song in, and my first Hetalia story! And now I beg you for reviews! Please, Please, review! Even if you just say cool, or stupid or something. Please! Oh, and I actually did forget about Canada during that one part... ^^; so embarasing... sorry Canada.**


	2. Investigate

**Yay, second chapter, and really fast too! Now review! Do it! Please? And thanks to everyone who favorite/reviewed/followed. It really means a lot!**

**I don't own Hetalia, but I really, really wish I did.**

* * *

Toris

September 25, 2012

7:22am

Sidewalk

* * *

I'm walking down the sidewalk on my way to the bus stop. I don't really enjoy riding the bus, but I don't mind it too much. At least two of my best friends; Eduard von Bock from Estonia, and Raivis Galante from Estonia, are on the same bus. I guess it makes sense though since their houses are both about five minutes from mine.

From my house it's about a ten minute walk to the bus stop. I don't mind the walk; I actually find it enjoyable! The air this morning is crisp and cool so I'm glad the uniform coat jacket offers a little protection. There is a little bit of wind and it's blowing my hair around wildly, and it keeps getting in my eyes. Sometimes I wish it was shorter.

"Hey Toris." Eduard called.

"Oh, hi Eduard, how are you?" I walked to them calmly after a glance to make sure Ivan and his little sister weren't here yet. Ivan really makes me nervous. In middle school, he used to pick on the three of us, but when we got to high school he stopped for the most part. Sometimes he still picks on us, or threatens to, but Feliks almost always defends me. Unfortunately if Ivan were to fight him I really doubt Feliks would when, but Ivan never bully's me when Feliks comes around. Natalia, Ivan's little sister, is like an angel! She's the most beautiful, sweet, kind, girl I've ever met! So far she hasn't admitted to liking me, but I know one day we'll be together!

"I'm doing well." He pushed his glasses up. He looked past me and frowned. "Here comes Ivan and Natalia."

"What?" Raivis is by far the most terrified of Ivan out of the three of us. Actually Eduard isn't too scared of him but he does get nervous. He just doesn't show it.

Raivis looked around frantically and when he spotted them, jumped behind Eduard shaking terribly. I can't say I'm not shaking too though.

"Oh, hello Toris, Eduard, Raivis. It's nice to see you again." He smiled that creepy smile of his that always makes me want to run home and hide under my covers.

"Yeah Ivan." Eduard said. I don't know how he can be so calm!

"Why are you hiding back there, Raivis?" Ivan leaned around Eduard and looked at Raivis who promptly began shaking even harder than before, if that's even possible.

"Good morning, Natalia." I said nervously.

"Я не вижу, что это так здорово о нем.* Shut up." she said. She's probably had a bad morning. (A/N in case you want to know that's pronounced: YA ne vizhu, chto eto tak zdorovo o nem)

I was about to open my mouth so I could say something else to her but the bus pulled up and Eduard and Raivis were eager to get in. Once we were in and had sat down, Eduard pulled out his iphone. Though all the kids around here have rich parents, we still don't usually get things like that, but Eduard and his family have this thing about technology. I glanced over at the phone to see what he was doing. He's reading the news. Naturally.

* * *

Feliks

September 25, 2012

3:50am

Secret room

* * *

When I woke up it was still mostly dark. Nothing was really registering, and everything was blurry. I shook my head trying to get the room to come into focus. As my vision began to clear and my eyes started to focus on the dark shapes in the room I quickly realized I wasn't in my room. "Gdzie… jestem?"* I tried to move my arms, but they seemed to be tied behind my back, "Co się stało?"* I muttered attempting to move.

"Oh so you're awake." I looked up and saw the silhouette of a woman; the same short haired woman that grabbed me. That rag she put on my face must have been drugged. Just great. I wonder how long I've been here.

"Why did you like, kidnap me?" I heard shoes making a loud clomping sound and the silhouette started to disappear into the shadow of the stairs as she walked down them.

"Now why would I tell you that?" She asked, leaning close to me. She is so close I can smell her hair. It smells clean.

I pulled back and glared at her, trying not to be scared. She made a motion with her head that makes me think she rolled her eyes. She turned around and walked for a second before she turned a small light on. It was angled perfectly so that she can see but I can't. When she turned back around from the table the light was on she had a large rectangular piece of material in her hands. After straining my eyes at it I realized it was red and white; a Polish flag.

"So Feliks…" She said a sneer in her voice "are you patriotic?"

"What?" I'm really, really confused right now.

"Do you love your country?" She asked, positioning her hands at the top middle of the flag.

"Like, of course I do!" Seriously what kind of Pole does she think I am?

"Well Poleski, I'd reconsider." With a terrible sound she ripped the flag in half. Two perfect strips of color.

* * *

Toris

9:02am

Washington International High school-hallway

* * *

English was my first class. I'm feeling nervous, and a little afraid. It doesn't have anything to do with the class, but Feliks is in that class and he didn't show up. If it were anybody else I wouldn't think anything of it, but Feliks? No. If he were going to be absent he would tell me! If he had to pull himself by his teeth across his room to get to his cell phone so he could text me and say he wouldn't be there he would. I know him! That's why I'm so nervous about him not being here.

I shut my locker and sighed, looking at my cell phone again. Still nothing. I must have sent a hundred messages since I noticed his absence this morning. "Oh Feliksas, kur tu?" I sighed and looked at the floor.

"You are Toris, right?" a heavily French accented voice asked from behind me. I turned and faced the young Frenchman. His hair is the same length as mine but it's blond, and the sun seems to shine blindingly off of it when he angles it just right in the sun. Like right now. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it looks like it might be a little wet.

I squinted at him and nodded. "That's right, and you are Francis."

"Mm-hm." He nodded as well then cocked his head, for which I was grateful since the sun was no longer gleaming off his hair. "You look worried mon ami. Is something wrong?"

I clutched my heavy geography book closer to my chest, then a though occurred to me. "You're in Mrs. Miller's class next right?"

"Oui, that is correct." He rested his hand on his bag, which I noticed happened to be patterned like the French Flag. I adjusted my book. I really should get a bag, it would make things easier to carry and I wouldn't have to go to my locker so often.

"Feliks is in that class too. Could you keep an eye out for him?"

He looked up thoughtfully "Oh, you mean your blond friend? He is in that class, yes, and I will if you wish." He turned his head again and the light shined into my eyes once more. "Why, is he missing?"

"Well he wasn't in class this morning, and he didn't text me, so I'm a little worried is all." I blinked several times and tried to sound not worried.

"Well all right."

The bell rang and I jumped at the sound. I really need to hurry or I'll be late for class. I'm sure Feliks is fine. "Thank you for your help Francis!"

* * *

Francis

10:00am

Washington International High school-classroom 203

* * *

The bell finally rang and I sat up. Mrs. Miller's class is always so boring. But then, all of the classes are. Of course that's why I spend my time in the classes passing love letters to the pretty ladies. I stood up and stretched, then picked up my bag. As I made my way past a group of pretty chicks they started making a tittering sound and looking at me, so I did the only natural thing to do and winked at them. That sent them into a burst of giggles and caused one or two of them to blush.

Once I got to the hallway I remembered Toris. I should tell him that his friend was absent. But first I have something else I need to do.

Once I finished checking my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I wrote a note and put it in Toris's locker. The bell rang for the next class to start, but it's not like I care. Today is the first meeting this year for the Bad Touch Trio, as we've been dubbed. We always skip out on one class each week and hang out and discuss any plans we may have for that week. We always have the first meeting on the second day of the second week. It doesn't make any sense, but I don't really care.

I hurried to the big tree we always hold our meetings under and Gilbert and Antonio were already there waiting for me.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." I ran up and dropped my bag to the ground flopping down next to Antonio.

"Whatever." Gilbert snorted, then a little yellow canary flew from God knows where and landed on his shoulder.

"Oh! Hello Gilbird! Where were you yesterday?" Antonio asked as if the little bird would answer. The school used to try and make Gilbert leave Gilbird at home but he ignored them and no punishment worked so eventually they made an exception for Gilbird.

"He was sick." Gilbert shrugged. "Anyway we need to figure out what we plan to do first. It needs to be something big."

"We could blow up the punch at the welcome back dance." Antonio suggested.

"We could take nude pictures of the student counsel and post them all over the school." I could just imagine the gorgeous girls and the humiliated guys' pictures all over the school.

"It would be way too obvious it was you Francis!" Gilbert snapped at me. It's not fair. He's right of course, but that doesn't make me feel any better.

"We could paint the hallways pink." Gilbert suggested.

"That sounds like a lot of work, but it might work." I said thoughtfully.

"I like it." Antonio said.

"Okay then!" Gilbert said, jumping up and sending Gilbird flying. He hit his palm with his fist, and Gilbird sat on his head. "That's what we'll do then, 12am on Friday!"

"Why Friday?" I asked looking up at him.

"Because then we'll have pink Friday! Plus they should have it cleaned up by Monday and I'm thinking of a specific pink paint, and I don't think my awesome eyes will be able to stand it much longer than one day, plus I need the time to get the paint."

"Okay then." Antonio yawned and leaned back against our tree.

* * *

Toris

3:15am

Washington International High school-front lawn

* * *

I'd asked everyone I know if they'd seen Feliks, and none of them had. I'm really nervous now. This has never, ever, happened before! Eduard and Raivis went on the bus, but I missed it because I stayed to ask around about Feliks. I really hope nothing has happened.

I pulled out my cell phone. Feliks hasn't answered anything I've sent all day, so I will call his parents and house keeper. I dialed his father's number but there was no answer. I called his mother's number and got the same result. Then I called his house number and someone finally answered.

"Hello?" It sounded like his mother.

"Hello, is this Mrs. Łukasiewicz?"

"Yes it is, who is this?"

"Toris Laurinaitis."

"Oh, Toris!"

"I was wondering if Feliks is there."

"No, he's not home yet. Isn't he with you?"

"No, the last time I saw him was at a party last night."

"Last night? You mean he didn't spend the night with you?"

"No, why did he say he was going to?" Now I'm really, really, worried.

"No, but when he didn't come home last night, we just assumed…"

"No one at school has seen him."

"Oh my…" she sounded worried too. "Ok, thank you for calling Toris."

"You're welcome." I hung up and held my face in my hands. I've been worried all day, and now I'm more worried than ever. But it's more than just worried. I feel…afraid. I'm terrified. What happened? Where is he? He has got to be somewhere. I just hope he's okay.

* * *

Matthew

September 26, 2012

7:50am

Washington International High school-Front lawn

* * *

When Alfred pulled into the school today, the first thing I noticed was a police car parked in the parking lot. I wonder why they're here. Al looked confused as we walked towards the school. I guess he was wondering the same thing as me: What are the police doing here?

Inside all of the kids were talking non-stop, and the little bit I overheard seemed to be about the police being here. I guess that's the popular subject today. Alfred spotted Arthur talking to some random kid we don't know, and ran over to him. I followed him quietly.

"Hey Arthur, what's all this about?"

Arthur glared at him for a second "Don't you know better than to interrupt a conversation? Stupid git."

"Haha! Dude, like, with who?" he snorted.

"What do you mean 'with who'?" He turned to the guy he was talking to "… where'd he go?" he noticed the guy he'd been talking to disappeared. It probably had something to do with the fact that last year Al beat him up when he attempted to steal some money from me.

"So, do you know what's going on around here?"

"What are you talking about?" Arthur snorted sarcastically. These two act like they hate each other, but in reality they're pretty good friends.

"You know, why the police are here?"

"I just got here, and I haven't been able to figure anything out yet."

"Really? Oh. Hmm."

"Maybe we should go to class. I'm sure we'll find out soon." I said quietly. Both of them turned towards me.

"Yeah, I guess so." Alfred said.

"It is almost time for class." Arthur murmured, looking at his watch. "Okay I'll see you two at lunch. If you find anything out, let me know." He waved and started off towards his class. I'm glad they agreed with me. Actually I'm just happily surprised that they even heard me. A lot of the time people don't notice me, or forget about me. Even Alfred does, even though he feels really bad after it happens.

* * *

Lieutenant Detective Lauren Wagner

September 26, 2012

8:34am

Washington International High school-Principal's office

* * *

I huffed and checked my watch impatiently. My partner, Tom, and I have been waiting for the last forty minutes for the principal to get to us. I'm not going to wait patiently much longer. We have better things to do than wait on him.

Just then the principal's secretary walked out of her office and told us he was ready to see us.

"It's about time." I snorted, walking past her into the office. I mean really, wasting tax payers dollars, some of which I'm paying myself. Actually I've always thought that is kind of funny. If you think about it, I kind of pay myself.

"Good day." He greeted us from behind his desk. He didn't look like he wanted to talk to us at all.

"Good day Mr. Kindle. I'm Lieutenant Lauren Wagner from the police, and this is my partner Detective Moore **(1)**. I'm here to investigate the disappearance of one of your students." I said coldly, flashing my badge at him.

"One of my students is missing?"

"Yes, since sometime Monday evening."

"Which of them is it?"

"Feliks Łukasiewicz, the Polish ambassador's son."

"Oh my… I'm sorry but I don't know anything. You can't really expect me to keep up with all of the thousand-odd children in my school."

"That's not my concern." I said tartly "Tell me who his teachers are."

After a few minutes of searching and writing, he gave me a complete list of all of Feliks's classes, and teachers. "I hope this helps you."

"Thank you very much sir. Have a good day." Tom and I walked out of the principal's office and into the empty hallway. As we walked our footsteps echoed down the halls.

"Chances are these teachers won't be able to help." Tom thought aloud, as he read the list. "But they should be able to tell us who his friends are, which should be a big help."

I nodded "That's right." Tom and I have only been partners for a month, but so far we've worked fairly well together.

"Are we going to interrupt the classes?"

I looked down at the list. "We don't really have much of a choice. Time is of the essence with a case like this, and it's not our problem."

"You're right. So which one do you want to do first?"

I mulled over the list for a minute before deciding on one. "Let's go to Ms. Cullen's class first. It says here he's the English teacher or one of them anyway. Maybe he knows something.

"It looks like she is in room 406 in the west wing…" I glanced around. I hadn't noticed just how gigantic this school was.

"…I think it's this way…" Tom said peering down a hall.

"Okay let's try that then."

* * *

After searching for a while and getting lost some, we finally found ourselves in front of the door for room 406. I put my hand on the doorknob and paused, feeling inexplicably nervous. I guess it's probably because it's a high school. I mean, my high school life wasn't bad or anything, but there's just something about a bunch of teenagers together in one of the many buildings that provide the basic foundation of their teenage life-as wonderful or horrible as it may be- that makes me feel unsettled. I shook my head and turned the handle.

A young woman, who was probably in her mid-twenties with short brown hair, wearing a professional looking suit, turned to me looking curious and irritated. "What do you want? You aren't supposed to be in here." She sat the book she had been reading from down on her desk and crossed her arms.

I glanced at the twenty or thirty kids in their various uniforms, some looking more casual, and some more professional, and noticed they were all staring at us. Some of them looked curious, some of them looked a lot like they might have just woken up, and others just stared blankly. I couldn't help but notice an empty chair, and one of the boys who had blond almost shoulder length hair, and wearing one of the blue suit jackets, eyeing me with an approving eye. I also noticed his eyes lingered slightly longer on my hip and chest areas. When he finished he noticed I was looking at him and winked at me. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and pulled out my badge.

"Hello Ms. Cullen, I'm Lt. Wagner from the police and I'm here to investigate a missing person." She looked surprised and the class started murmuring.

"Be quiet!" she shouted, and her order was followed immediately. "I will speak to you in the hallway." She led us out of the room and shut the door. I have a feeling the kids inside instantly burst into chatter when the door latched.

"What do you need to know?"

"When was the last time you saw Feliks Łukasiewicz?" It had taken quite a bit of practice before I was able to say that last name.

"Let me see…" she looked up thoughtfully "He wasn't here yesterday, so I guess Monday morning."

"What time Monday morning?"

"Around nine o'clock I guess, when class finished."

"Hmm." I heard Tom grunt as he wrote what she had said down. That's the way things go for the most part. He writes things down and I do the speaking. We both do our equal parts in thinking though.

"If he were to run away, who would he tell?" I asked her.

"I really couldn't say. This is my first year so I've only seen him for a week, and don't really know anything about them, or who's friends with whom. But from the little I do know about him I don't think he would run away. He was loud and didn't have the best grammar, but he seemed fairly content with life."

"Do you know if he has any enemies within the school?"

"I'm sorry but like I said, I'm new and don't really know anything about the kid's yet."

Tom closed his notepad and I sighed. "Thank you for your help anyway." I said. She opened the door and I heard loud talking instantly cut off before the door shut behind her. I looked at Tom "So shall we try the next class?"

"Yeah sure." He said.

We were examining the list and had gotten about halfway down the hallway when a yell stopped us. "Wait please!" We turned around and saw a boy who was probably around seventeen, wearing a suit jacket with the plaid pants that seemed to be the only bottom piece for the schools uniform, with shoulder length brown hair running towards us. We stayed where we were and let the kid catch up to us.

"I'm sorry for holding you up, but I have to know, is the guy you're looking for named Feliks Łukasiewicz?"

Tom and I looked at each other surprised and then Tom pulled out his paper and pencil.

"Yes, he is." I narrowed my eyes at him. "How did you know that?"

"Well… He didn't show up for school yesterday, and he didn't answer his phone, and his mother did not see him since Monday."

"Okay then." I nodded slowly. The kid had a strange accent. "What's your name?"

"Toris Laurinaitis." He said, his voice shaking a little. "What's happened to Feliks?"

"That's what we're trying to find out. What is your relationship to him?"

"He's my best friend." He swallowed nervously.

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"Monday night, around eight thirty I think." He looked at the floor and shuffled his feet.

"What happened that day?"

"Nothing really. We had school like normal, then cheerleader practice. I didn't really want to be a cheerleader, but Alfred convinced Feliks, and Feliks decided I would be one too."

"Did anything odd happen then?"

"Well…only if you consider Feliks dressing in a girl's cheerleader uniform odd…"

"So your friend was a cross-dresser? Was he gay as well?"

"No no!" He straightened up and looked at me. "He wasn't, isn't a cross-dresser or gay! Elizabeta thought it would be a good idea and asked him to. …Although, it isn't the first time he dressed up as woman."

"Hmm. Did anything else happen?"

"Well Alfred and the others told us that we were invited to a party at Antonio's house after the sports meets were over."

"Did the two of you go?"

"Yes, Alfred gave us and Gilbert and Ludwig a ride to the party."

"What time did the two of you leave?"

"I left at around eight thirty, but Alfred had forgotten his cousin, and his sister dropped him off, so there wasn't enough room for all of us on the way back, so Feliks didn't leave when I did." Toris looked down. "That was the last time I saw him."

"Who are Alfred, Antonio, Elizabeta, Gilbert, Ludwig, and the others?"

"Alfred Jones, Matthew Williams, Antonio Carriedo, Gilbert and Ludwig Beilschmidt, Elizabeta Héderváry, and Mathias Køhler. All of us except for Alfred and Matthew are kids of ambassadors and Alfred is the son of an important political person, and his cousin Matthew is from Canada and lives with them."

Tom stopped writing for a second then started again, writing furiously. "Tell me everyone who was at that party.

* * *

Toris

September 27, 2012

3:26pm

Sidewalk

* * *

Today I decided to walk home. I wanted to think. Yesterday the police came. When they said they were there to investigate a missing person it was pretty obvious it was Feliks. When Ms. Cullen came back in, I had to go talk to them. It had taken forever, but I gave them the names of everyone who was at the party, and everyone in our little group.

It seems they spent most of the day yesterday questioning all of the kids I named, which is twenty nine kids. They also had to track them all down, which was quite a feat. Today the entire school could talk about nothing besides Feliks's disappearance. Some of them think he ran away, but no one knows for sure. Yesterday his picture was in the news and everything.

I'm really scared for him. I hope nothing has happened.

* * *

Gilbert

September 28, 2012

12:00am

Washington International High school-front lawn

* * *

When I got there with the paint the other guys were already there. "Hey guys." I whispered kneeling down behind the bush with them.

"Did you get the paint?" Antonio asked me.

"Yeah." I nodded motioning to four cans of neon pink paint that I had just sat down.

"Good. Let's get this over with." Francis said.

"Okay Gilbird, open the door for us." I whispered to Gilbird who was currently flying circles around my head. He chirped and flew into the small broken window several flights up. A few minutes later there was a clicking sound from the door and I opened it. "Good work." I whispered to him, and he sat on my head. "Okay, we have an hour to make as many hallways as pink as we can! So go!"

The other two nodded and ran into two different hallways. I opened my can and began slathering the extreme pinkness everywhere. I'm glad it's dark and hard to see, or my eyes would be burning right now.

I was about halfway through one of the halls with lockers in it (I'm not sure which it was too dark) when I heard a noise. I froze for just a second before glancing around. Then I heard a locker quietly close. I crept in the direction of the sound, but there was no way to tell which locker it had been. I did notice however, in the faint moonlight coming through the window, a foot disappearing down one of the halls. I hurried towards that hall but by the time I got there, whoever it was, was gone. Oh well. I have a hall to paint. "Kesesesese."

* * *

Toris

September 28, 20212

7:46am

Washington International High school-hallway

* * *

I walked down the hallway slowly. They were pink. All over the school, most of the hallways had been at least mostly painted fluorescent pink. It was almost too much for my eyes to take. There was a bunch of kids in the hallway with me, and they were all blinking rapidly and squinting, as if the color would make them go blind.

When I got to my locker I sighed. Feliks has been missing three whole days now, almost four. The police haven't been back since Wednesday, and frankly I'm feeling really discouraged. Talk about his disappearance has slowed a bit except in our group. I'm not sure if that makes me happy or upset. When they talk about him I get more worried, but when they don't I feel as if he's disappeared entirely. I sighed and opened my locker. All I can do right now is pray.

When I had opened it, I noticed something there that wasn't there before. It was a fairly large box covered in a strip of red material and a strip of white material. I picked the box up and shook it a little. It sounded like something moved. I frowned and took the material off sitting the box back in my locker. There was something familiar about the strips. I held them up side by side and noticed that they looked like they had both been torn on one side. I put the two next to each other and realized something.

"Poland…?" this is a polish flag. I looked at the box and suddenly got an ominous feeling. I began to feel as if I didn't want to open the box. I slowly picked it up and lifted one shaking hand to one of the flaps.

Willing my hand to be still, I opened the box. For a minute the world seemed to freeze. Everyone around me stopped mid movement, and I couldn't breathe. I felt numb. Then my eyes swam and horror filled me. What I saw in the box suddenly registered and the world seemed to come to life again. My shaking legs couldn't hold me up. The box fell to the floor as I did. I tried to back away. I have to get away. This can't be real, this can't be happening. It has to be a nightmare. It couldn't be anything else.

But it's not a dream. It's real. It's really happening. I screamed.

* * *

**Wow! Really, really, really, long chapter! I'm very proud of myself! Anyway please, please, review! I'm begging you!**

**Yes I decided to make Gilbird a canary. Why? Two reasons: 1. A canary is a small bird that can be yellow, and can fly. 2. I have no freaking idea what Gilbird really is, and a canary worked so yeah.**

***I don't see what's so great about it. -Russian**

***Where… am I?-Polish**

***What happened?-Polish**

***Oh Feliks, where are you?-Lithuanian**

**1. A little reference to one of my mother's co-workers who was recently arrested for running a red light in 2005. The guy has rotten luck, they even staked out his house! For three days (and it's not the first time something like this has happened to him. He also gets sick a lot…)! Too bad they're not as persistent and thorough with drug dealers, murderers, and the like.**


	3. We'll be the heros!

Alfred

September 28, 2012

7:48am

Washington International High school-hallway

* * *

I was in my first classroom for the day with Arthur and Matthew, 'talking' to Gilbert and Francis about the pink hallways. It had to be them that did it. There's no one else in the school that I know of that can pull off a prank like that. Besides it's written all over Gilberts smug face. I would have to talk to Antonio about it later, out of the three he is the most likely to tell.

That was when we heard the scream. Without waiting for the others I ran out into the hallway, and in the direction of the scream. I'm pretty sure I heard them running behind me. It took only a few seconds to find the source of the scream. It was Toris. He was backed up against some of the lockers with his legs curled up against him, and he was shaking like a leaf, with a few tears beginning to roll down his face. As soon as I reached him I asked "What's wrong?!"

He didn't say anything and just pointed at a box that was sitting in front of his open locker. I went over to the box and opened it, looking inside. I felt all the color drain from my face and almost gagged. It was Feliks; his head, to be exact. A sharp intake of breath behind me made me realize the other guys were standing behind me, looking over my shoulder. I quickly closed the box, but by the ghastly looks on their faces, I could tell they had already seen it.

Francis covered his mouth and murmured something in French that I couldn't understand. Arthur mumbled an obscenity under his breath and looked at me as if to say "What now?" Gilbert's face was even whiter than usual and he said *"Oh mein Gott." Luckily he kept his voice down. Then I noticed Matthew had left.

Holding onto the box, I looked for Matt and saw him next to Toris. One thing I've always noticed about Matt is how good he is with animals. Whenever an animal around our house is hurt or scared or lost, Matt will always feed it, and play with it, and comfort it, before it left. Now I realized his skill was not limited to animals, he could also do a good job of comforting people. Maybe it's because he's so gentle, or quiet or something.

* * *

Matthew

* * *

After I caught a glimpse of what was in the box I pushed down the urge to vomit and looked around. No one except the five of us saw inside the box. Then I remembered Toris. I quickly turned around and saw him right where he had been when we got there. It was pitiful really, the way he was hunched up and crying.

I wanted to get his friends, the ones still living anyway, because they would be most calming to him, but I don't know where they are so I went myself.

I walked to him and crouched down beside him. "A-are you okay?"

He jumped like he'd been hit then looked up at me, tear trails staining his cheeks. For a moment we just stared at each other like that, then, he burst into tears again. I did the first thing that came to mind and grabbed his shoulders. "Hey, hey, it's okay, just calm down, everything is going to be fine."

"No its not!" he shouted then he started screaming hysterically. This is something I've never experienced before; I honestly have no idea what to do. Alfred came over, handing the box to Arthur wordlessly, and looked at Toris with one of the most serious expressions I've ever seen on him. But while it looked serious it also looked sympathetic. He knew it wasn't Toris's fault, and that he was grieving the loss of his best friend. Alfred leaned over and slapped Toris.

The crowd around us flinched. I hadn't actually noticed them until then. He stopped screaming instantly and looked at Alfred, completely shocked, then started crying quietly again. I wasn't sure what to do so I just hugged him close and rubbed his back. It was only a few minutes before his sobbing slowed and I realized he'd fallen asleep on my shoulder.

When the police arrived they went to wake him up but one of the teachers stopped them. I almost wished that they would wake him up because I was starting to get cramps in my legs, but when he whimpered a little I quickly decided I didn't mind it at all.

* * *

Arthur

8:10am

Washington International High school-principal's office

* * *

To say I was relieved to give the box to the police when they arrived would be an understatement. Every time I so much as glanced at the box I felt nauseous. I almost gave up my breakfast at one point when I moved some and felt the weight in the box shift, knowing that Feliks's head was rolling around inside it.

Francis sat down in the chair on my left and Alfred was already on my right. For once I didn't really feel like fighting with the frog beside me. We- Myself, Francis, Alfred, Gilbert, Toris, and… um… Oh yes, Matthew, were sitting in the principal's office where the police had told us to wait while they investigated. Apparently we're going to have to go to the police station for them to interrogate us. I don't know why they want to; we don't actually know anything at all, we weren't even that much friends with Feliks, excluding Toris.

Gilbert is sitting next to Alfred, and it seems they are talking quietly. I didn't notice them before, but now I'm straining to hear what they were saying. I never did hear anything but Gilbert jumped up all of a sudden, and Alfred was right behind him.

"Me and Gil," Incorrect grammar as usual "are going to go see what's happening. You guys stay here and distract them if they come in before we're back." I assumed that "them" was the police.

"That's a stupid idea." I snorted. What does he think he'll find out anyway?

Alfred didn't look fazed by my comment. Not that I expected him to be. He walked over to the window and opened it. "Remember, cover for us!" Gilbert swung out the window onto the vines that were growing there, and was quickly followed by Alfred. I rolled my eyes at their idiocracy.

* * *

Gilbert

* * *

Al and I decided to go investigate the scene of the crime. Really I just want to know what's going on. I swung out the window and grabbed the vines that were there. It makes me think of those movies, you know, when people want to climb up to a window, or climb down from somewhere and there always just _happens_ to be vines there? It's so weird.

Alfred almost kicked me when he came out of the window. "Watch where you kick schwachkopf!" I shouted at him angrily.

"Oh sorry dude." He said looking down at me. He really did look like he was sorry.

Once we were on the ground we snuck around the corner of the building. There were a whole bunch of police cars there and a few random policemen standing around.

"Okay! …What now?" I whispered.

"Uh, I guess we need to sneak in somehow…" Alfred looked around the front lawn seemingly unsure of how to do it.

"We could just walk in and tell them we're late if they ask." I suggested.

Alfred furrowed his eyebrows and stared at the policemen. "I guess we could try that. Let's sneak around then run up."

"Yeah okay." Without waiting for him I crouched down and darted from tree to tree until I got to the front, with Gilbird trailing slightly behind. Like I'd expected Alfred was only a few steps behind me.

"Okay let's go!" He jumped forward and started running towards the elaborate front doors.

"Hey jerk, wait up!" I rolled my eyes and ran after him. The guy was always trying to steal the spotlight, although whether or not it's on purpose is debatable.

Alfred was about to run past the policemen when one of them stopped him. "Hey kid you can't go in there."

"Why not?" he asked as I stopped next to him.

"This is a crime scene."

"Crime scene? What kind?" Alfred asked, feigning surprise.

"None of your business." The man replied curtly.

"Well we go here so we should totally get to know what happened!" I snorted at him.

"Hey that's a weird accent you got there kid, where are you from?"

"Prussia."

"Prussia, hmm Prussia…huh…" He looked up thoughtfully "Oh yeah! Wasn't that some country that was dissolved?"

"Maybe so, but I'm still an awesome Prussian!" It's true! My mother's grandparents were Prussian, and her parents are the descendents of Prussians, so I call myself the awesome Prussian I am!

He rolled his eyes "Whatever."

"Now crime or not, let us in we're late for class!" Alfred tried to go around the man, but was caught by the shoulder.

"Sorry no one's aloud to go in. Besides, the classes for today were cancelled."

"Really?" I'd never realized Alfred was that good of an actor. Not awesome, but good. "It was that serious?"

"Sorry kid, not gonna say anything else. Just go home; I'm sure you'll see it on the news tonight anyway."

"Then why don't you just tell us?" He was getting irritated. I could tell that wasn't acting. I almost think he forgot we already knew.

"Go home." He said firmly. Alfred seemed to realize it was a waste of time, and turned around angrily and stomped down the drive way again. I started to follow him, but then I turned around and walked backwards, glaring at him. I stuck my middle finger up at him then turned back around and ran after Alfred.

"Well that was un-awesome." I snorted after we'd ducked behind a tree.

"Yeah." Alfred screwed his mouth up thoughtfully and looked at the building. One of the windows was open. "If we could distract that jerk we could get in through that window."

I nodded. The window was on the bottom floor. If we snuck close to the window then distracted the guard somehow for long enough we could get in that way. Then I got an idea and smirked confidently "Leave it to me." I held my finger out for Gilbird to land on. "Heheheh, would you distract the guard please?"

Gilbird chirped and flew in the direction of the guard. "Get ready." I said to Alfred. He looked confused but finally nodded and slowly and quietly followed me across the grass until we got behind the bushes below the open window. The policeman just barely missed seeing us.

"What now?" Alfred asked.

I laughed quietly "Just wait a second." Gilbird flew across the lawn and landed on the policeman's shoulder. I couldn't hear him, but it looked like he was startled at first, and then happy with a little canary's presence on his shoulder. It looked like he said something to Gilbird, who started jumping around on his shoulders. Then it happened. Gilbird landed on his head and let it loose. That is to say he crapped on his head. The guy started jumped around and shaking his head. I would've loved to sit there and watch, but we had to get through the window before he got over it and saw us.

It turns out the window was in the front hallway. That made it simpler for us to not get caught since it was empty. I didn't have to ask where we were going; the only place that would make sense is the hallway.

When we reached the hallway it was full of policemen and women, and there was caution tape all over the place. There weren't any kids left in the pink hallway so Alfred and I stuck out like a sore thumb. I noticed the morning sun coming in at an angle through one of the high windows. Then I realized this was the hallway that I had heard someone in last night-or technically speaking this morning.

"Hey what are you two doing here?" I recognized the policewoman that had taken us to the principal's office to wait, and rolled my eyes.

"Seeing what's going on." Alfred said like the dope he is.

She frowned at us "You need to go back to the principal's office until I'm ready to take you back to headquarters. Westly!" she snapped.

"Yes?" A small squirrely looking man stopped. I assumed he was Westly.

"Take these two to the principal's office _again_ and stay there to keep an eye on them. If they escape again you're in trouble."

Westly gave us a sideways glare and motioned for us to follow him. We did so grudgingly.

* * *

Alfred

September 30, 2012

11:52am

St. Augustine Catholic Church

* * *

I found the whole thing really depressing. I hate funerals as it is, but when it's a friend of mine, especially when they're my age, it's even more depressing. It didn't help that I could hear his mom wailing like the world has ended, but I guess for her it kind of has.

They did find the rest of Feliks' body, though I don't know where, and reattached it to his body. They did a really good job and you can hardly tell. I still had a hard time looking in his casket because in my mind I kept seeing his dismembered head, and while looking at his dead body I couldn't help but realize that life is fragile and unfair.

Everyone from our little group was there but I was sitting with Matthew (of course), Arthur, Francis, and Gilbert. None of us were very broken up about it since Feliks wasn't a close friend, but there's a certain sense of injustice in this whole affair. The five of us along with Toris, had been taken to the police station and questioned on Friday, but none of us really had much to tell. Since then not much has happened.

Finally the priest guy finished his droning and everyone started to leave. Me and the other four guys had previously decided we'd go to lunch and packed ourselves into my car. Once we got to McDonalds I ordered three hamburgers, an extra large fry, and an extra large drink. We found an empty table and pulled up an extra chair so we'd all fit.

I had just finished my first burger and was about to open my mouth to say something when my phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey Alfred it's Ryan." Ryan's like the head kid or whatever of the church I sometimes go to. I'd forgotten that I'd told him I'd be there today.

"Oh hey Ryan, sorry I forgot to call and tell you I couldn't make it today after all."

"Why couldn't you?" That's Ryan; no beating around the bush.

"I was at a funeral."

"Oh. Sorry to hear that. Were you close?"

"Kind of. He went to my school, and we hung out sometimes."

"Did he get sick or something?"

"No, he…He was murdered."

"Oh." There was a pause "I think I heard about that. Was it the Polish kid? He went to your school right?"

"Yeah it was him."

"That was really terrible. I hope whoever did it gets caught."

An idea that had slowly been forming in my head suddenly took shape. "Yeah."

"Well, I guess I'll see you sometime?"

"Yeah, see you." I hung up and looked around the table. For once Arthur and Francis weren't fighting, and Gilbert was being quiet. No one likes a funeral. Except maybe Ivan.

"Guys I've got an idea!"

"What kind of idea?" Arthur asked.

"We're going to catch Feliks' killer!" I was getting excited.

Francis looked at me skeptically "You really think we can? We should just let the police handle it."

"Dude, they don't have near as much time as we do, and we're on the inside. Besides we're smart! We can totally do this!"

"Okay let's do it! The awesome me can solve any mystery!" Gilbert shouted, instantly losing his quietness.

"Alright, why not." Arthur didn't look too sure but one look at Francis and he lost his uncertainty.

Francis sighed "Okay, fine."

"Great! So let's meet at Arthur's house tonight." I said.

"What?! Why my house?"

"Why not your house dude? We don't have school tomorrow because of you know what, and it would be a perfect time to start solving this mystery!"

He rolled his eyes and slumped back in his chair "Fine, I don't think mum will care."

"Okay!" I was pumped. I was totally going to be the hero!

* * *

Alfred

6:00pm

Arthur's house

* * *

We had decided to meet at Arthur's house around six. I think everyone else is already here besides me and Matt. I opened the gate of the wrought iron, ivy covered gate surrounding Arthur's house and stepped inside.

Arthur's house was a grandiose structure even amongst the grand houses of its neighborhood. Stone walls would have made a perfect square if not for the giant cottage styled front to the house. Ivey grew half way up the castle like stone walls of the house and gave it an even more ancient look (though in reality the building was only five years old). The yard in the front of the house had been made into two lovely English gardens filled with roses and small pathways. They were split by a walkway to the front door that had a small water fountain in the middle of it.

We made our way past the fountain and I nonchalantly tossed a penny in as we passed, wishing for good luck in our new undertaking. When we reached the door I was going to ring the doorbell when the door opened.

"Hello Alfred!" Peter, Arthur's twelve year old brother opened the door.

"Oh hey Pete, is grumpy around?"

"You mean Arthur." Peter nodded knowingly. I always thought his little British accent was so cute! There was a crashing sound from the kitchen and what sounded like a woman screaming.

"What was that?" I walked into the front hallway followed by Matt who took his brown jacket off. My bomber jacket is for more than warmth though so I totally didn't take it off.

"Francis is in the kitchen and mum is cooking." He said that like it explained it all, but I wasn't totally sure what it meant.

Since I'd been to Arthur's house a lot I knew where the kitchen was and walked there quickly. When I got there things seemed to look normal enough, with the exceptions of Gilbert, who was tied to a chair with an apron with an apple stuck in his mouth looking indignant, and Francis, who was on the floor against a wall looking dazed and incoherent. He also had a large lump on his head. Arthur was sitting on a barstool and smothering laughter with his hand, and a red haired woman was cooking. It smelled awful.

"Uh…" I ventured.

The woman turned around, her large eyebrows furrowing a bit then relaxing when she saw it was me. "Hello Alfred!"

"Hi Mrs. Kirkland. What happened to them?" I like Arthur's mom well enough but I try to be very careful in order to stay on her good side.

Arthur snickered a little from his perch on the stool "Francis tried to tell mum she's a bad cook."

"And Gilbert?" I was almost afraid to ask.

"He said mums eyebrows are huge." I decided not to say that they are in fact, gigantic, and just shuffled my feet a little. The door burst open suddenly, letting in a cool breeze and three of Arthur's older brothers.

"Hello mum." The oldest of Arthur's brothers said. He was a tall guy, even taller than me (but still shorter than Ivan), and he had flaming red hair just like his mother. His eyebrows were normal size though. He was wearing a dark blue vest over a white shirt, and jeans. He also had a cigarette held firmly between his teeth, and an earring in his right earlobe.

"Scott!" Brianna Kirkland said angrily stomping across the room. When she reached him she snatched the cigarette out of his mouth and waved it in his face as she admonished him "What have I told you about smoking in the house?! You shouldn't smoke anyways, it's bad for you!"

Scott rolled his green eyes. "Yeah mother I know, you've said it before." He snorted and grabbed his cigarette back, then tossed it carelessly back out the door, receiving a frown from his mother.

"Don't talk back to me. Just because you're bigger than me doesn't mean I can't still put you on the floor." That silenced the 22 year old. But it's totally true! I think that woman could easily beat any professional wrestler out there, man or woman.

William, who was 19, stomped on the cigarette and put it in the ash tray by the door. "Seriously Scott, start putting your own cigarettes out, I'm not your maid." William joined his older brother as their mother gave Scott one last challenging glare before going back to her cooking. William was shorter than Scott but slightly taller than Arthur, and had blond hair like Arthur's but didn't share in his brothers and mothers large eyebrows. He was wearing a green T-shirt with a red dragon design on it, and blue jeans.

Irvin strode into the kitchen in his green jacket and pants, and plopped a box on the kitchen counter. "Hi mum, I brought dinner." He looked around the kitchen at us and then back at the box. "I don't think it's going to be enough. Didn't know we were gonna have company."

Mrs. Kirkland shot an evil glare at Arthur "I didn't either till they showed up thirty minutes ago." Arthur laughed nervously a little before falling into silence.

"What did you bring?" I spoke up. Really, I was sick of being quiet and I was getting hungry.

"Fish and chips," I remember having their definition of fish and chips once, but I can't remember exactly what it was. "But I only planned on mum, Arthur, and Peter eating so I don't think there's enough."

"Well, I'm going out with your father when he gets home tonight so I won't eat. You can the food I'm cooking in addition to that and you'll have plenty." Arthur made a face that looked as if someone had just sentenced him to death. I haven't eaten his mom's cooking before, but if it's anything like Arthur's it's not going to be fun. Irvin shot his brother a pitying look, and Scott smirked evilly. William grinned a little.

"Uh, uh, mum, um, Raivis invited me to spend the night with him, and we're gonna eat and stuff, so I'll just wait until I get there." Peter piped up nervously.

"When were you planning on telling me this?!" She looked irked.

"Sorry mum."

Francis seemed to be regaining consciousness and a look of fear slowly began to creep across his face as he realized what she was saying, and Gilbert had begun struggling violently. Scott burst out laughing at their reactions. I'm not sure what they're so worked up about. I know Gilbert lives closer to Arthur than me, but I don't think he's ever had Brianna's cooking either, but Francis might have.

Upon receiving a glare from his mother Scott reduced it to a smirk again.

* * *

Thirty minutes later Francis had completely recovered, Gilbert had been freed, Peter had called Raivis and frantically begged to come over, and gotten permission, and Arthur's dad had picked up his mom. Now we were in Arthur's room with all the food. We hadn't wanted to take the food Mrs. Kirkland had cooked but Scott, William, and Ian (Irvin's less light hearted, identical -minus his hair cut- twin, who had gotten back from a date with his girlfriend right before Mr. and Mrs. Kirkland left), forced it on us.

"So what do you plan to do now that we're all here?" Arthur was pretty irritated I think. But I'm pretty sure it has more to do with his brothers than me.

"I dunno." I said.

"What? You mean you don't even know where to start?! I knew this was a stupid idea."

"We could go over what we already know and right it down or something." Matthew suggested quietly.

"Oh yeah, great idea Matt!" I said. "So who's gonna write it down, cause it sure as hell ain't gonna be me."

"Well it's not gonna be me either." Gilbert snorted leaning back and munching on a "chip" (coughfriescough).

"I'll do it." Francis volunteered. Arthur handed him a pad of paper and a pen.

"Ok great! So what happened first?" I asked

"On Monday we went to Antonio's house for that party, and Feliks rode with you and so did I." Gilbert said. "But he didn't ride with us when we left because you forgot Matthew and there wasn't room anymore." I'd hoped that wouldn't get brought up. So embarrassing.

"He wasn't at school the next day, Toris asked me to look for him." Francis said, scribbling on the paper as he spoke.

"So he disappeared somewhere between eight Monday night, and seven or so Tuesday morning." I reasoned.

Arthur nodded slowly. "And we found his…his head, on Friday morning. Is that all we know?"

"Well, I don't know if this is anything or not but around midnight Friday morning when I was painting that hallway I thought I heard a locker close, and saw someone on their way out."

"Ha! I knew it was you three that did it!" Arthur shouted triumphantly.

"Who was it!?" I can't believe he didn't tell me earlier!

"I don't know I only saw the back of their foot."

"Naturally." Arthur rolled his eyes.

"So whoever killed Feliks put his head in the locker around midnight, probably not realizing the bad touch trio was there. But when and where did they put the rest of his body?" Matthew said.

"That's right! They had his whole body at the funeral! But where did they find it?" Gilbert exclaimed.

"Maybe we could hack the police station and find out." I said.

"Hack the police? How do you plan to do that? You're no technical genius, nor a hacker. There's no way you could hack the police." Arthur said.

"Maybe not, but I think I know someone who can." I pulled my cell phone out of my bag and began scrolling through my contacts.

* * *

Eduard

6:45pm

Von Bock home- Eduard's bedroom

* * *

I was playing with one of my mochi(s?) when my cell phone rang. I sighed and reluctantly left the mochi I had named America, and sighed again when I saw the caller. "Hello Alfred. What's up?" It's not that I don't like him or anything like that, but he can be really… difficult sometimes.

"Hey Eduard, I was just wondering if you could do something for me."

"What is it?" I'm feeling a little apprehensive about this now.

"Can you hack the police and get us some information?" Oh sure hack the police, no problem whatsoever. I should've guessed.

* * *

Alfred

6:59pm

Kirkland home-Arthur's room

* * *

"Ok thanks Ed."

"You're welcome, and don't call me that." I hung up. He had said he was surprised at how easy it had been for him to hack into the police database. It had only taken him a little more than ten minutes to get in, and only a few more to actually find the information. Next time I get a virus I'm totally bringing my computer to him.

"So?" Francis asked, pen poised. I could've put Ed on speaker I guess but I really hate doing that.

"He said that Feliks' mother found the rest of his body in the front yard on stakes so that it stood up. It was around six o'clock Friday night." He also said that the pictures from the crime scenes would definitely give him nightmares, but I don't think I should tell them that. Everyone was kind of quiet after that. Just imagining that picture is enough to give you nightmares, especially when it was someone you knew. Poor Eduard.

Francis finished writing and folded up the paper pad. "What now?" he asked.

"Let's just relax for a little while. Watch TV or something. While we're at it, give me some more food." I'm seriously starving. I haven't ate all that much and I feel like there's a pit in my stomach.

"Well um, sorry Alfred but-"Matthew started but was cut off by Gilbert.

"There isn't any left. Unless you call that stuff Artie's mom cooked food."

"What?! You ate it all without me?" I can't believe those guys!

"If we waited for you it would have all been gone! Besides you were busy on the phone."

"Fine, pass me the stuff Arthur's mom cooked."

"What?!" Arthur exclaimed.

"Don't do it Al!" Gil said.

"I'm hungry and it's got to be at least mostly edible still." I said taking the food and beginning to eat it. It took a lot of work to get it down, and it tasted really nasty, but it would fill my stomach so I still ate it.

"Que Dieu te protège.*" Francis murmured. I'm not sure what he said but I don't really care. I kept eating.

"When you get up to puke, just don't puke on flying mint bunny." Arthur said. Flying mint bunny?

"Whats that?" I asked.

"Urm I, uh...It's, it's..." his face was turning red. Now I really want to know what exactly a flying mint bunny is. Finally he just hung his head and motioned up to his bed.

The four of us looked at each other for a moment, then scrambled over to it. I'm ashamed to say that after Francis had gotten shoved down by Gilbert, I might have accidentally stepped on his hair. Opps. When we got to the bed we looked over it and instantly burst into laughter. Except Matthew, who has always been careful not to hurt anyone's feelings. "Arthur dude, you have stuffed animals?" I choked out between laughs.

"Weird ones at that!" Francis said, never missing an opportunity to make fun of his frienemy.

"That is so unawesome!" Gilbert shouted while laughing.

But seriously, why does Arthur even have a green, winged, bunny stuffed animal anyway?

"Alright, alright, I know already, so would you just shut up?"

* * *

Arthur

October 1, 2012

2:30am

Arthur's house-bedroom

* * *

I woke up to a ghastly sound. I sat up slowly and looked around, slightly irritated. From my bed I could see that Matthew was awake as well as Francis, but they didn't seem to care about the sound. Gilbert didn't seem to be awake.

I had a bad feeling I knew what the sound was, especially since Alfred's bed was empty, but I slowly got out of bed, sat flying mint bunny carefully on my pillows, and headed towards the source anyway. It only took a few seconds for me to know for sure that the sound was coming from the bathroom so I walked to the door, opened it and poked my head inside.

Alfred was in there hanging his head over the toilet. I knew it. He stopped heaving after a minute and looked at me from the corner of his eye. I couldn't help but smirk a little. "Told you."

* * *

_**Yeah so that's it for this time. Sorry it took so long to update. If you're interested I finished this chapter while camping so I couldn't upload it for a while after I finished. Plus life has been a bear lately, not that anyone cares. Anyway I hope you enjoyed and I really really like reviews. No I'm not begging! Yes I am. Please review!**_

* * *

***Oh my God.-German**

***Schwachkopf-imbecile-German**

***May God protect you.-French**


	4. Another one bites the dust

**Okay, since I think every Hetalia story should have one of these here are the countries that have seen One by One so far: America, Finland, Canada, Poland, UK, El Salvador, Singapore, Chile, Iceland, Vietnam, Australia, and Mexico! Thanks you guys! Anyway, here's the next chapter!**

**I keep forgetting but in case you haven't realized this yet: I don't own Hetalia!**

* * *

Arthur

October 8, 2012

3:05pm

Washington International High school-hallway

* * *

I sighed and shut my locker door, spinning the lock on the handle so no one could get in. It's been about a week and a half since Feliks was discovered dead. It's been exactly a week since Alfred decided we were going to find out who killed him. Ugh. He's been dragging us everywhere on "leads" and getting us into trouble. Take last Friday night for example: he heard the janitor say Feliks's name and decided the guy needed to be investigated. So to make a long story short, by Saturday night we'd broken in the poor guy's house and Alfred started accusing his wife. Luckily it wasn't too hard to dissuade him from that one. But I think this is all some sort of game to him, at least right now. He'd seemed serious about it for the first three days, but after that… At any rate, the only real information we got was that Feliks's body had been sent for an autopsy. I guess that's why they didn't bury him. They just wanted him to have a proper funeral first. Makes sense really. I feel sorry for his family. I don't know what I'd do if one of my brothers died, even if it was Scott or William or Ian.

Oh well. I think the excitement is finally starting to wear off. I think I'll be glad when this whole thing is over. I'd only give it a week or so before Alfred's finally completely over it and we can go back to normal. But for now, I have tests tomorrow, and can't worry about that stuff.

* * *

Killer

October 8, 2012

3:15pm

Washington International High school-classroom

* * *

I looked around the classroom. It was the Political Science classroom, and it was pretty big. This is my next targets final class for today too. At the moment he seems to be talking. Good. All I have to do is go grab his notebook then my plan will have officially started. No backing out now.

There were still a lot of kids hanging around the classroom which is good for me. They're unlikely to notice me taking it. If they did notice I'd be screwed, but I'm very careful so no one is going to see me. It's also lucky for me that the notebooks owner is busy talking-if you could call it that. Really he's just in the middle of a group- and left his things at his desk. Another thing working towards my advantage is that there is a test in this class tomorrow, and as lazy as everyone thinks he is he really isn't. I can tell when he's really asleep and when he's just pretending, and when important things are being talked over in a class he's usually just pretending to be asleep. I also know for a fact that he will be studying tonight, and he will need his notes. Yeah he takes those too while pretending to be asleep. It's amazing how good he is at faking it. But I know everything about his schedule, just like I did about Feliks. I will not make a mistake.

* * *

Heracles

October 8, 2012

7:18pm

Washington International High school-front lawn

* * *

This is just great. How could I have forgotten my notebook? Oh well. I can't study without it, and I have a test tonight. Not that I really need to study, but I prefer to be safe. At least it's easy to get inside the school. Although now that I'm here looking up at it I'm wondering if it's really worth the effort. Not that it's hard to get inside when I want to, I just don't know if I want to bother. I already dragged myself here though, so I guess it would be wasting energy not to go all the way now. What a bother.

I felt something press up against my leg and looked down. One of my cats had followed me all the way from home, and I hadn't even noticed. "Oh hello τεμπέλης* (pronounced tempéli̱s), what are you doing here?" τεμπέλης is one of my favorite cats. He is a small, gray, fluffy, cat and he definitely lives up to his name. I bent down to pet him, and then made my way to the door. I really wish I was a cat. They don't have to do anything, just sit around and purr, sleep, eat, and lick themselves. I could do whatever I wanted, and sleep anytime and anywhere. Yeah, that sounds nice.

But I'm not a cat, and I have a test tomorrow, so it's time to get back to the task at hand. Instead of getting in the hard way I decided to try the door first. To my surprise it was open. I wonder if someone is still here. I can't say I wasn't getting an ominous feeling though. Maybe it's because of the recent discovery of Feliks's head in the school. It just doesn't feel…safe.

I stepped inside, τεμπέλης at my heels, and shut the door behind us. I don't remember seeing it at my spot in Political Science, and I know I had it at the beginning of the class so maybe it's in my locker. I trudged down the hallway until I reached my locker. It was dark and I couldn't see very much. I reached my locker and pulled it open, the hinges protesting loudly.

Suddenly τεμπέλης started growling. That couldn't be good. I turned around quickly and looked around. Someone was there. I could feel it. "Who's there?" I called into the darkness.

"Well, I'd hoped you wouldn't notice me, but I guess it doesn't matter either way." A shadow moved a little and took on the shape of a girl. She was probably a little shorter than me, and she had short hair. Her voice sounded really familiar too. I narrowed my eyes. I have a feeling she isn't planning anything good.

I opened my mouth to say something when I noticed something glinting right around the area where her hand should be. By the dark chuckle that came from her I'm pretty sure she noticed me looking at what I'm guessing was a knife. "Pretty isn't it." She said, lifting it up where she could examine it better.

While her eyes were on the knife I moved my left foot ever so slightly, and shifted my weight in the same direction. I know she doesn't have that knife just to admire, and she didn't want me not to notice her for no reason. Chances are if I don't escape I'll end up like Feliks. I can't say that doesn't scare me, but if I panic now, I'll die for sure.

I slowly turned my right foot and my left foot to face the left, and turned my body towards more the left as slowly as I could. If I'm careful enough and she doesn't notice me getting ready, I might be able to outrun her.

She starts to come a little closer and I know this was it. If I don't run right now I will die for sure. I put all the strength I could muster into my legs and darted to the left. I felt her finger tips brush my skin as I began my sprint down the hallway. I ran as fast as I could without looking back. It wasn't even a second before I heard her footsteps pounding down the wooden floors after me. It sounds like she's close but I didn't dare to look back to see how close. It's too risky. For the moment my adrenaline is working in my favor but whoever she is seems to be fast and it sounds like she's getting closer. I'm beginning to regret not being more athletic. Why does my locker have to be at the back of the school?

I am almost to the entrance hallway now. It's just around one more corner. The new problem I'm going to have is getting the door open. She's right on my heels. If I stop long enough to open the door she is going to catch me for sure. If I keep running I'm going to run out of energy. I don't really have any good choices but if I keep running maybe she'll run out of energy first, and then I could get ahead. Now I can see the door. I only have a few more seconds to decide.

Unfortunately as I passed the door I had a moment of indecision. I barely even slowed down at all, but it was still enough. She grabbed my wrist and used both of our combined momentum to fling me against the bookshelf on the nearest wall. I felt a sharp cutting pain on the back of my head, slightly below my shoulders, and on the small of my back where I hit the shelves. I never knew a piece of wood could be so sharp. Before I could move again I felt something cold and thin barely touching my neck.

"Very clever Heracles. Bravo, you almost got away. I commend you. But sadly for you, it will end shortly. Very shortly." Another dark laugh made its way out of her throat, sending chills up my spine.

She removed the knife from my throat but before I could move at all her fist slammed into my face and knocked my head back into the shelf. There's no doubt about it. This girl is much stronger than average girls.

Lights seemed to go off around the room like a bunch of camera flashes, and my head felt… foggy, I guess. Before I could get my head working like normal again after the double hit, I felt the girl pulling me down the hallway. It was kind of hard to see where we were going though, because of all the lights.

This is definitely not good. I'm pretty sure she's pulling me back to my locker. I don't know what exactly she plans to do when we get there, but I know it's nothing good. Probably even death.

My fear comes back in a flash and I started pulling my arms and trying to wrench them out of her grasp. It was no good. I was still too dazed to do much and her grip was as strong as her punch. Much too soon we were back at my locker. As she pulled the knife back out from wherever she'd put it so she could drag me down the hallway, I vaguely wonder where τεμπέλης went. Oh well. I guess it won't matter for much longer. As she brings the knife towards me, I imagine what my family will feel when they hear I've died. My parents will be completely broken up about it of course. My μητέρα* will probably call my θεία* who will in turn call everyone else in my οικογένεια, my family. I'll miss them. I think. I know they'll miss me. I'll have a big funeral and everyone will cry their eyes out and spend my birthday for the next few years in mourning. Honestly I don't know if I want them to be broken up or not. I don't want them to forget me or not care about my being gone, but I want them to have a good life too. Oh well. It's out of my control now. I hope God takes care of them. It's amazing how much you can imagine in one second, especially when that second is your last. I wish I could leave my family some sort of note or something. One second may be enough to imagine and remember a lot of things, but it's not exactly enough to write a note or a letter. Besides, what would I tell them anyway? I love them, for sure, I forgive them? I'm sorry? Not who killed me. I don't even know that myself.

Suddenly time begins moving again and before I could even manage to scream the knife was in my neck. I felt the world begin to fade and I fell to the floor. The thing is I barely felt it; not the knife piercing my neck, or my body hitting the floor. Is this how people feel when they die?

* * *

Killer

* * *

This is only the second time I've killed. I still can't get over how easily people die. I haven't had the courage to stab someone anywhere besides their neck. I only did what I did to Feliks so easily because I panicked. The worst part of that though, was dealing with his head afterwards. Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit. Handling a dismembered head wasn't exactly on my list of things I wanted to do in my lifetime. Although, this time the sensation of my victims flesh resisting my knife didn't send shivers down my spine. Maybe next time I won't feel anything at all. I hope so.

Of course, I don't let it show. It's pretty easy to cover up how uneasy it makes me feel while doing it by putting on the terrifying bad guy face. I guess I am the bad guy, but most people don't think I'm terrifying or scary at all. Too bad for them, some of them might just find out how frightening I can be. I laughed a little, and started setting up the scene.

* * *

Arthur

October 9, 2012

6:40am

Scott Kirkland's car

* * *

This is just brilliant. Last night I was trying to study my math so I wouldn't fail my test today but Scott distracted me. We were in the kitchen and he had a cigarette then somehow or another he ended up dropping it on my math notebook while we were have a _friendly _brotherly brawl, and long story short, it ended up bursting into flames. It's just a good thing we were in the kitchen. The bad thing is I couldn't study. And what's even worse is that mum saw the whole bloody thing and told Scott that he would have to take me to school early today and help me study, because it was his fault too.

Now that would probably be a good thing -because he's really good at math- unless you're me. The last thing I want is _him _helping me with my school work. Plus we had to get up early which means we're both in a bad mood. This day is looking to be pretty rotten so far.

We pulled into the schools parking lot and got out. One or two teachers should be here by now or at least the desk lady. Either way the door should be unlocked.

Scott stalked towards the door in front of me, his red hair the brightest thing in the misty half light. I know he has pretty much no idea where my locker is but he is determined to go before me because he's soooo much better than me. Limey jerk.

He opened the door and strutted into the school like he freaking owned the place. Then he seemed to realize he didn't know what my locker number was. "What's your locker?"

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, it's in the back of the east wing, number 819." I snorted. I took the lead –gladly- and started walking down the hallway that leads to the hallway with my locker in it. It feels like this walk gets longer every day, and it seems especially long today with Scott here.

Our steps echoed down the empty hallway as we walked, not talking at all. Neither of us wants to "chew the fat" as Alfred calls it sometimes. It's not like I hate my older brother or anything, he just likes to pick on me _a lot_, and so we fight _a lot_. Sometimes mum brakes it up but she's not around all the time. The last corner was finally coming up. I walked around it and froze in my tracks.

There was someone lying on some sort of blanket in the middle of the hallway. What an idiot. I resumed my walk at a faster pace and stopped next to the guy. It was Heracles, lying on his side on a Greek flag. A chill ran down my spine for some reason. Sure, I've seen him sleep in the weirdest places sometimes, but why would he be sleeping here, on a Greek flag? And I'm pretty sure I remember seeing him leave yesterday. This makes no sense.

Scott stopped next to me and lifted an eyebrow. "Is this…normal?" he asked me, giving Heracles a strange look, and then turning to me.

"No. This is the first time…" I trailed off, nudging Heracles shoulder with my foot a little. He didn't move. I squatted down next to him. "Hey Heracles wake up!" I poked his shoulder. He still didn't move.

"Move it." Scott said. "I'll show you how it's done. Wake up lazy!" Scott said loudly, grabbing the sleeping teens shoulder and jerking him over. To both of our absolute horror, the slight bend in his arms and legs didn't go away when he was turned over, and the front of his light greenish-bluish shirt was completely covered in mostly dry blood. It was obvious without even checking that he was dead. How could he not be? There was so much blood on him, and even though he was on his back the position he was in didn't change at all; Rigor mortis had already set in. He had to have been dead for a long time now. At least several hours.

I closed my eyes and turned away. I couldn't stand it anymore. It was just so… horrible, much too awful for words to describe. How could anyone be so cruel? I can't help but think it's likely that whoever…beheaded Feliks killed Heracles too. I tried but I just couldn't bring myself to look at him again.

I heard a click as Scott unlocked his IPhone. I managed to turn my head back towards Heracles and took in the full sight. I had barely gotten a glance last time. His eyes were open, staring blankly towards the ceiling, and his mouth was slightly open as if he'd been struggling to breath. The look on his face looked almost like it always did –which could be basically described as unconcerned- except his slightly furrowed eyebrows added the effect of being afraid. Even Heracles, as unemotional as he seems –unless he's fighting Sadiq- is-was- afraid of death. His brown hair had some blood matted in the edges towards the front of his face, as if he'd been lying in it and then been turned over.

My eyes finally moved from his face and I saw the cause of his death; a small but deep looking hole in the middle of his neck. It looks like that hole could have been made from a large kitchen knife, something that could be found in billions of houses, thousands here in DC alone. Aside from his face, neck and the blood, oh and the rigor mortis, he looks pretty much normal. Sadly it's not the first time I've seen… something like this, but that time I'd looked away as quickly as I could, and left the box closed so I didn't have to look again. Now I am squatting here next to one of my friends who is dead. Murdered. And no matter how hard I try I can't stop looking. I can't look at Scott, I can't look at the floor, I can't even look at the ceiling. Just at him. I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight.

* * *

Detective Lauren Wagner

7:44am

* * *

I can't believe it. That school again! Two kids murdered at the same school in a little over a week. Do these rich kids have some sort of problem? I mean mentally? Seriously, I just don't get it. It's unusual enough for there to be a murder –a thought out one at least- happen at a school, especially a rich one, but two? I can't help but wonder if the two are connected.

I opened the door and found my way to the back of the school where other cops had already blocked off the hallway. Pictures had already been taken and the decomposing body was in the process of being removed. I grabbed John –a coroner who often works with me when I'm dealing with a murder, suicide, or natural death case- and he looked at me. "Is anything odd about the body?"

"Besides the hole in his neck?"

I gave him a half amused look "Ha ha, now be serious."

"Not really, except for three bruises."

"Bruises? Could they be from abuse?" I always go ahead and explore all options when it's a murder case, which it obviously is. I need to know as much as I possibly can as quickly as possible.

"No, this type couldn't come from abuse. I didn't get a very good look, but if I had to guess, I'd say it came from a bookcase."

"A bookcase?"

"There are three thin, perfectly straight, and as far as I could tell, identical, bruises a little less than a foot apart on his back and head. If they weren't caused by a bookcase I don't know what it could be."

"A bookshelf… huh." What could have happened that made him hit a bookshelf? John said they were identical so he couldn't have fallen backward because then at least one of them would be lighter colored. The most likely thing is that he was pushed against one somehow. I can make a more precise calculation once an autopsy is performed. One should be performed. I mean, his parents can still have a funeral if they do it quickly, and it really could help a lot in finding his killer.

* * *

Alfred

* * *

The police are at school again. This is the third time in, what, a week now? This shouldn't be happening! Why is this happening?! But maybe it's nothing. Maybe someone just broke into the school. Yeah, that's right, that's what happened. I've got nothing to worry about... Nothing at all…

I uneasily made my way out of my car and slammed the door, and I heard Matt do the same. I adjusted my grip on my bag and headed towards the front door. There was an ambulance close to the door and a crowd of recently arrived students around it too. I had just mounted the fancy flat stairs leading to the door when a police officer came through the door forcing kids out of the way. I stopped in my tracks when I saw two guys dressed in white wheeling out a body shape mound on a stretcher covered by a white cloth. But it's not a body! It can't be! It just can't!

They were just about to pass me when I couldn't stand it anymore. I dropped my bag and ran to the stretcher, and before anyone could stop me, ripped the top of the sheet up.

That's Heracles face. That's Heracles. Heracles is dead. H-Heracles is dead?! Heracles is dead! He's dead and it's my fault! It's my fault because I didn't find the killer! Now he's dead too! I failed him, just like I failed Feliks.

I felt my legs shaking and slid to the ground, tears beginning to roll down my cheeks. I held my face in my hands as the men moved on, ignoring me for the moment. I vaguely noticed Matthew was standing next to me, but I didn't acknowledge him. I couldn't. Because it was my fault.

I'd been that way for a few minutes when I felt a hand on my back. Looking up, I saw a blonde woman with green eyes looking down at me. "Are you okay?" She didn't sound horribly concerned, but she did look sympathetic.

I sniffed a little and forced my tears to cease before standing and nodding. "I'm fine. I just… It's just… I mean I… "

As I struggled to find the words to describe my feelings she nodded. "It's okay I understand. What's your name?"

"Alfred." Finally regaining my composure I held my hand out "Alfred Jones."

"It's nice to meet you Alfred," she said, taking my hand "My names Det. Wagner." I nodded and she continued "Tell me, did you know the victim?"

"Victim…" I looked down "Yeah I know him. Knew I mean. I knew him." It's horrible really. Really, really, horrible. "H-how" my voice squeaked so I cleared my throat before continuing "did he…did he die?"

She looked down, and then looked me in the eyes "He was stabbed in his throat." I looked down and choked back a sob that attempted to come up. "Alfred, if you know anyone who might have wanted to kill him or even people who just didn't like him please tell me. You could be making the difference between our catching them, and them going free."

I shut my eyes and thought for a minute "Well, there were a lot of people who are-were friends with him, and even more people who don't really care either way. The only person I know for sure that hated him would be Sadiq."

"Sadiq? What's his last name?"

"I…I'm not sure." Really I think I'm doing good to remember all of my friend's first names. I hate that but it doesn't help that most of them have really weird last names. "I do know that he's from Turkey and his parents are ambassadors."

"Oh ok. Thank you. You might have just made a difference in the case." She smiled and walked back inside, I'm guessing back to the… the crime scene.

"Bye." What I didn't tell her was that I plan to make a difference, a big one.

Francis

I was studying the crime scene from behind the caution tape. It was terrible what happened, but whoever killed the victim-I haven't found out who died yet, only that someone died- either didn't spill much blood or they cleaned it all up.

There are photographers all over the school, and the press are trying to get past the policemen. I should go to the bathroom to make sure I look gorgeous for when those photographers from the press come around. Who knows, maybe my picture will get in the paper.

I made my way to the closest garçon de bains but stopped short when I saw the mirror. Above the mirror and perfectly between the lights a dead cat had been nailed to the wall by its tail. On the mirror itself notebook paper that seemed to have school notes on it were hung across it. There were large letters written, one on each paper, in what looks like blood. They read "**AN_o_TH_e_R O_n_E B_it_E_s_ _t_HE DU_s_T**"

* * *

***Lazy-Greek**

***Mother-Greek**

***Aunt-Greek**

***Family-Greek**

**So that's it for this round. I hope you enjoyed it! Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon. I do have this entire week out of school, but I have a special planned and since it is Thanksgiving I have family stuff to do, and my immediate family decorates our house this week and we have five Christmas trees so… yeah… that takes at least an entire day. But my neighbors actually beat us in having their Christmas stuff up! :O You know what that means right? It's on! Anyway review please~?**


	5. Dissection and Discussion

**Countries that have seen this story so far: United States of America, Finland, Canada, Poland, United Kingdom, El Salvador, Singapore, Chile, Iceland, Vietnam, Australia, Mexico (now for the new guys! :D) Malaysia, Sweden, Venezuela, Russian Federation, Philippines, Netherlands, and China. Thanks guys! And I got two more of the allies! :)**

**By the way I own the world. Yeah, right. We all believe that one.**

Alfred

October 9, 2012

9:35am

Washington International High School-Biology lab 4

* * *

It's only the fourth week and Mr. Burnstock already has us dissecting frogs. I mean, did he have to do it today? Of all days, we have to put a knife to a creature that was once living and examine all of its organs, today?

They (they being the principal and the teachers) had decided not to stop school today. There is a clean-up crew in the still-blocked-off hallway and, last I checked, they had said it would only be a few hours before they and all traces of the crime… of Heracles, would be gone.

How can the school be so heartless?! How can they do this to us? One of our classmates, and for some of us, close friends just died. Died! Right here, in this school, not twenty four hours ago. It's cruel! I mean, we always say our teachers are cruel but in reality we don't really believe it. Now I've began to think that maybe, just maybe, they truly are cruel.

None of the students look happy. None of them were teasing each other, or attempting to throw frog organs at our "enemies", or even making fun of the teacher. They all just dig their knives into their frogs and label the organs.

"Mr. Jones." I snapped my head back towards the front of the room when I heard Mr. Burnstock call my name.

"Yes sir?"

"Have you finished dissecting your frog?" He gave me a look that plainly said he knew I hadn't.

"No sir."

"Then stop daydreaming and get to work." He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me, almost like he was challenging me to do otherwise.

I took a deep breath and picked up the knife. So far, I hadn't been able to bring myself to cut the frog open. The instructions were clear, it wouldn't be hard, but somehow, today it seemed as if cutting that frog open was the hardest thing in the world.

I moved my hand and the knife towards the frogs belly to make the T-shaped incision the instructions described. When did my hand start shaking? I shook my head and clenched my hand tighter and then relaxed it in an attempt to make it stop. It wasn't entirely successful, but it did help some.

I put the knife to the starting place for the cut and applied pressure. I closed my eyes as the knife began to pierce the skin. I regretted doing that. The first thing that popped into my mind was Heracles face, and as I felt the knife slide into the skin I could see a similar instrument being shoved into his neck.

I opened my eyes and sat the knife down. "I'm sorry Mr. Burnstock, but I just can't do it… I-I just… can't."

Mr. Burnstock's glare lightened slightly and he sighed. "Considering the events this morning, I suppose I can lighten up a little. But I have a few conditions. Since your sister has taken this class before you can have her do it with you later, but it has to be sometime this week. You have to hand in your report to me on Friday, and if you don't I'll knock off points for every day that passes. I'll also take some off for the assignment not being done today."

Okay so maybe Mr. Burnstock isn't quite as bad as I thought he was "Thank you sir." I mumbled.

He pointed to a chair near the door "Sit there and study quietly until class is over."

I picked up my backpack and made my way to the chair, feeling extremely relieved. Some of the kids gave me looks, and one or two even snickered at me. Of course, I was already pretty popular, and being the quarterback comes with an automatic popularity boost, so they wouldn't dare mock me much. But I don't really care anyway. Let them make fun of me if they want to, if it makes them happy.

I sat in the chair and pulled out my biology book. My eyes read the words but somehow my brain didn't comprehend any of them. No matter how hard I tried to chain my mind to the book, it kept wandering to a much darker place than biology could ever be. When lunch gets here, we have a serious discussion waiting.

* * *

Matthew

12:14pm

Washington International High School-Lunchroom

* * *

I looked at my plate forlornly as the cafeteria lady put some yellow mass on it. This is the day the school calls macaroni day. Some of the students around the school call it yellow barf day. I think this lump is somewhere between the two, maybe slightly more towards the barf. Personally, I like to call it glop.

Amelia had offered to make me something for lunch this morning, but I had refused because she's been on a diet kick lately and probably would have made me a celery salad. I mean, that's not bad but I really didn't want celery. But now, I'm starting to regret that decision. Amelia doesn't offer to make lunch much, and she seems to be the only one with enough time to make it. If this glop is too bad I guess I'll just go hungry.

I was looking towards the table that the five of us had been sitting at since Al started this "investigation" when someone ran into me "Sorry, I didn't see you." A familiar voice said as I regained my balance and steadied my glop.

"It's okay." I said as I turned around. It was Ludwig. It looked like he hadn't got his food yet, and he seemed annoyed. I can't help but wonder if it has something to do with Gilbert being right behind him.

"Oh it's you, uh…" Ludwig scrunched up his eyebrows as he searched for my name, and I suppressed a sigh.

"Matthew."

"Right, sorry."

"It's okay I guess." I shrugged and glanced around the tall muscular guy. "Hello Gil."

He sniffed loudly before answering "Yeah, hi." He didn't sound too pleased.

"Is something wrong?" I asked. I don't know what would be wrong, but with Gil, you never can tell.

"No, nothing's wrong." He coughed and sniffed again.

"Are you sick?" I'm pretty sure he is sick, but I'll ask anyway.

"No! I'm not sick, I just have a cold."

Ludwig rolled his eyes and sighed "Gilbert, a cold is a sickness."

"Well not when I have it! I'm way too awesome to get sick. Either that or I don't have a cold." Gilbert is really stubborn. I realize that albinos get sick easier than most people, but when Gil gets sick he refuses to admit it, especially when it hasn't been too long since the last time he was sick. I just kind of play along usually. Or just ignore it.

"Ve~ Luddy!" Feliciano seemed to run from nowhere and tackled Ludwig. Ludwig gave his best friend a look and shook him off.

"Yes yes, hello." Ludwig sighed.

"I'm hungry. Let's a'go eat!"

Ludwig started to walk off with Feliciano but then stopped and looked at his older brother "Don't be stupid bruder."

"Psh, I don't know what you're talking about!" Gil snapped back turning his head to look in the opposite direction.

"Take your medicine Gilbert. I'll call Vati if you don't."

"Ha, I'm not afraid of him! What's he going to do, spank me? Go ahead and call him! Besides it's only for symptoms, nothing can cure a freakin cold, so I shouldn't have to take it anyway." Gilbert now had a smirk as he stared at his brother.

Ludwig shrugged "Okay but it's your funeral." He pulled out his cell phone and was about to press a button when Gilberts frantic voice interrupted him.

"Ok, ok! I'll take the stupid medicine, just don't call Vati!" If possible he seemed even paler than normal.

He pulled out a small capsule, took two small white pills out, popped them in his mouth and, before I could protest, gulped down some of my drink to wash them down. I glared at him but he didn't seem to notice. Like normal. No one ever notices me! Am I invisible or something?! One day, I'll make them all notice me! …yeah. Like that's going to happen.

I sighed and rolled my eyes as Ludwig walked away with Feliciano and Gilbert walked towards the food line. Forgotten again. At least he left my drink. What's left of it anyway.

When I arrived Alfred was already at the table as was Arthur and Francis. I sat down and watched Alfred. He was eating really fast, and I mean really fast. I've never actually seen him eat this fast before. It kind of makes me nervous. But I guess I'm kind of on edge already, especially after what happened this morning.

"Hey Al… Al? Al!" I poked his shoulder and he started choking on his mouthful of food. I panicked and slapped him on the back several times until he had finished coughing. "Are you okay?"

He swallowed again and looked at me "Yeah I'm fine."

"Good." I sighed and shook my head. "You really need to be more careful with how fast you eat and how much you put in your mouth at once Al. One of these days you might actually choke to death."

Without bothering to respond Alfred went back to eating –slower this time- and Gilbert walked up, holding his glop and sniffling. "Stupid medicine! It's going to make me tired!"

"What do you care? You always sleep in class anyway." Francis said, daintily taking a bite of his glop and then looking at the plate disdainfully. "I would almost rather eat Arthur's cooking."

Alfred almost choked again "Really? It's not quite that bad!"

"I did say almost!" Francis snorted, gulping down another bite. Gilbert coughed and Francis -who was sitting next to him- scooted a little away from him. Gilbert didn't seem to notice.

"Hey! My cooking isn't that bad! I happen to like my food!"

I gave Arthur a pitying glance and went back to eating my own food. This is a common fight amongst us (or should I say them) and I would rather just stay out of it.

After a few minutes of that Alfred decided to brake it up "Ok guys listen up! After the events this morning we have to start really doing something!"

"Like what!? What do you possibly think we could do!?" Arthur yelled, stress evident in his voice. I did notice that when he was fighting today he wasn't really in it like usually. It was more like he was going through the motions.

"I don't know, but we have to try!" Alfred yelled back, effectively silencing everyone at the table.

"So what should we do first then? What is our plan of action?" Francis asked quietly.

"Well um… I guess uh…"

"Who found the, uh, the body?" I spoke up since Alfred didn't seem sure.

"I did, Scott and myself." Arthur said, shuddering a bit.

"Oh. Sorry." I doubt very much it was a pleasant sight. "What did… what did it look like?" But if we want to figure this out its best if we all know. He told us exactly what happened and just what everything looked like. After that Francis told us that he had seen something in the bathroom and he told us about that too. Overall the situation seems ominous. (**A/N No, I'm not going to bother with making all of you read about that again.**)

We sat in silence for a few minutes until Gilbert finally coughed and Alfred spoke up "So, who would want to kill Feliks and Heracles?" I'm pretty sure he's using his decently vast knowledge of mystery books and movies to try and figure this out, even if he doesn't realize that.

"Sadiq hates Heracles or hated him, but I don't really think he would kill him. Would he?" I said. Really none of us knows Sadiq that well, nor did we know Heracles that well. That will make things difficult.

"I don't know. We should talk to him." Arthur spoke up.

"Yeah we'll do that." Alfred said.

"Didn't Heracles have a little brother or something?" Francis asked.

"I think so… wasn't his name Cyrus (**A/N Yeah that's Cyprus. A little on the uncreative side I know, but I don't even know any for real Greek names anyway**) or something?" Arthur rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I don't know, we should ask Kiku." Alfred said "If anyone would know it would be him."

"We should talk to the guy, maybe he'd know something." Gil said thoughtfully inspecting his glop.

"But, I don't think any of them would want to kill Feliks." I decided to go ahead and butt in… if anyone will listen to me.

"Ha! If anyone would want to kill him it would be that stupid Ivan." Gilbert leaned back in his seat, almost losing his balance and falling off the back, but catching it at the last moment. Once back in place he burst into a small coughing fit and Francis scooted a little more away.

"Yeah! Remember that one time a year or two ago when Ludwig picked a fight with him? Ivan jumped right in and finished him off." Alfred put in, swinging his fork up excitedly, slinging a little glop off of it. "Actually, now that I think about it for how he looked and acted, Feliks was really pretty strong. Heracles wasn't too weak either if you judge by the times he fought with Sadiq." He continued waving the glop around, and I settled for hoping it won't fly off onto me.

"So obviously whoever killed them-because clearly it was the same person- is decently strong, or at least knows how to handle people stronger than him." Arthur snorted.

"So! This afternoon, we'll all split up and question people! …um, who all did we say?"

"Kiku, Cyrus, Sadiq, and Ivan." Francis said, pushing his plate back, giving up on trying to eat the stuff. Instead he pulled out a comb and began running it through his hair.

"Stop doing that here! You're going to get your dirty girly hair in the food!" Arthur pulled his "food" as close to himself and as far away from Francis as he could.

"My hair is not girly it's sexy, and it's certainly not dirty." He snorted at the bushy-browed-Brit, continuing to comb his hair.

"Sexy? You call that sexy? I call it-"

"Ok, so who's going where?" Alfred butted in slamming his fist enthusiastically on the table. Personally I think he did that because he knew otherwise he couldn't get their attention.

"Well, since that one will probably take a delicate touch, I'll go to see Cyrus." Francis volunteered. Yeah right. It's probably because he thinks it will be the easiest. Besides he's really not that delicate. Good with girls, but not delicate, not like you need to be for this job anyway.

"Well I'm not going to see Sadiq or Ivan so I'll take Kiku." Arthur said, crossing his arms and looking away from Francis.

"There is _no_ way in heck that I'll talk to Ivan!" Gilbert shouted.

I paled. You know what this means? It means I have to talk to him. I turned my head nervously to look in his direction and horror music seemed to pop up from nowhere. A dark purple aura began to seep out from him and his weird smile seemed directed at me. I gulped and turned my head back quickly.

"Don't worry Matt!" Alfred slapped my back hard, almost sending my face into my "food" and jolting my glasses out of place. "Since there's five of us and four of them I'll go with you!" Oh thank God! Al is one of the only people in school that can somewhat handle Ivan. He just pulled my neck out of a serious noose.

"So it's settled then! After school today, we five have a job to do! We'll meet up at my place after school tomorrow and talk about anything we learned. Go ahead and see if you can stay the night."

* * *

3:34

Washington International High School-parking lot

* * *

I sighed nervously and pulled open the car door. I don't want to talk to Ivan but at least I won't be alone.

"You ready?" Alfred asked as he climbed into the drivers seat.

"Well... not really, but I'll be okay."

"Okay then, here we go!" he started the engine and was about to back up when Amelia knocked on his window.

Alfred rolled his eyes and the window down. "What?"

"I was going to ask Matthew if he wanted a ride home."

"No he's fine."

She cocked an eyebrow and looked past him at me "You sure you want to sit and wait on him?"

"What do you mean?" Alfred said. I'm not sure myself.

"You forgot didn't you?" it was her turn to roll her eyes and she huffed. "You have a dentist apointment at four dumby."

"Ah." Alfred whined and slid down in his seat despite the buckle holding him in place. "Come on Amy just let it go this time?"

"I don't care Al, but Dad and Mom do. I'm just trying to help you out bro."

I unbuckled and slid out of the car. My heart started beating a little faster and I tried to keep from shaking.

Amelia looked over the car at me "So do you want a ride home?"

"No." I shook my head "I think I'll walk, maybe stop someplace." Someplace... I'm crying inside.

"Well okay then, see you boys later." She turned and jogged back to where some of her friends were waiting for her.

I on the other hand began the trek out of the parking lot and towards the Braginsky home (I've never actually been there but I know where everyone lives). It looks like I will be facing the Russians alone.

**Okay so I've decided to make the chapters shorter or try to anyway. Not a whole lot happens here but I'm also trying to make it feel less rushed. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, review, favorite, follow, or hang out in cyber space I guess. I'll see you guys next chapter!**


	6. Russians and dentists

Matthew

October 9, 2012

3:59pm

Braginsky residence

* * *

Somehow everything seems to have grown darker and colder since I left school. The wind is blowing pretty hard and the sky is overcast, giving a gloomy mood to everything. Leaves are flying across the sidewalk and making scratching sounds, occasionally hitting my legs as the pass me. I dragged my feet in coming here but now that I'm here there's nothing I can do. I shuffle up to the door, the wind blowing my hair into my face, and ring the doorbell.

The gong that I can hear even from out here matches the creepy gothic look of the house and the weather. If this keeps up I might just faint. The door opens a crack and a single violet eye peers out at me. "Da?" shivers run down my spine as Ivan speaks.

"I-I-I-I wa-wanted to talk t-to you Ivan."

"Oh okay. Come in." He stepped back from the door and pulled it open for me to walk inside. Things on the inside don't look much better, the paint was a dark grey color and there was a grey marble table in the hallway with a family portrait hanging over it. I looked at it and shivered. I hope that Natalia isn't home. I really, really, hope she isn't home.

"Sit there." I snapped out of my thoughts and saw we were in a different room. It looked like a sitting room of some kind. He was pointing me to a big red sofa and he took a matching red chair across the small but elaborate wooden table in front of it. I sat on the couch and it really felt like it was swallowing me whole. It probably looked like it too. I'm afraid it looks more like he's the one investigating me than the way things really are. I decided to focus on my questions and trying not to shake.

"So what did you want to talk about?" His Russian accent makes me think of all those spy movies made during the cold war. Not the image you want when you're about to question someone, especially when that someone could tear your head off.

"W-well, you know that a week or so ago Feliks was murdered."

"Da." He said, his expression not even flinching.

"I uh… did uh…" I stuttered a little. Actually I don't even know what to ask him! I mean, what am I supposed to say? But I have to say something and all I can think of is the direct approach. "Did you kill him?"

* * *

Alfred

Dentist's office- waiting room

* * *

"Alfred Jones?" one of those annoying little nurses stuck her head out of the now open door and called my name.

Sighing and I stood up and walked over to the door. "If you'll please follow me sir." She told me, and led me down a short hallway into a small room. Sure she seems nice enough looking at her now, but really she's leading me into torture.

I sat in the green dentist chair and stared up at the light hanging above my head as the nurse informed me that the teeth cleaning lady would be there shortly. I really hope I don't have that one old lady I sometimes get, the one who talks non-stop and moves at about the pace of a slug. Like coming to the dentist isn't bad enough as it is.

"Oh hello Alfred, it's been a while since I've seen you." I inwardly groaned as the gray haired woman stepped inside. It looks like I'll be here for at least an hour. "Are you going to have an x-ray and flouride today?"

"No."

"You need to have one because your wisdom teeth haven't come in yet and we need to know to get them out."

"No, I won't be having those today."

"Tell your parents you need them." They already know that actually, but they said it's too expensive right now. "I guess we'll get started." She slid on her gloves and walked towards me. I held in a groan.

* * *

Matthew

Braginsky home-sitting room

* * *

"Nyet." Ivan said, shaking his head and looking down sadly. "I wish I had, but I did not do killing." I held in a shiver. Ivan really is scary. "I would've liked to see the frightened look on pathetic little face while I slowly killed him."

"O-o-o-okay then." Now I know how those three Baltic guys feel. It's not pleasant.

"But why are you asking me?"

Oh crap. "I um, just wanted to ask…?"

"That is a strange thing for you to want to ask." He gave me a doubtful look.

"W-well, you know…" I trailed off laughing nervously. Okay next question. I need to act less suspicious. "So did you know Heracles?"

"Hmm, well, I knew him on sight but little more."

"Oh." I don't suppose he would want to kill him then, would he. I was just about to sigh and get up to leave when he said something that stopped me in my tracks.

"I would have liked to crush his face in too though." It sends shivers down my back when he says it with that look on his face. That creepy innocent smile… it's sick.

* * *

Alfred

Dentist's office

* * *

"How is school going?"

"Ii ooein ood I es." Argh! Why does she have to talk to me when my mouth is full?! Of her hands none the less! It's so annoying. Not to mention she's killing me with those evil poking sticks. I'm pretty sure my gums are bleeding by now.

"That's good. I have a grandson around your age you know. He loves school. In fact he told me the other day…" I inwardly groaned as she continued to drone on and on about her grandson and his friends and how he's doing in school and sports and such. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and pulled it out. Matthew was calling me. I ignored the call and texted him. **_Dude you know I can't talk right now, this old hag has her hands in my mouth! What do you want?_**

A few moments later he replied _**Oh, sorry. You have her huh? Lol I feel sorry for you. Ivan told me he wished he could have seen Feliks die and he said he would've liked to kill Heracles too, even though he really didn't know him.**_

_**Oh wow man! Great work! Did you see if he has an alibi?**_

_**No. Sorry I forgot. Man, how could he forget that?**_

_**Have you left yet?**_

_**Well, I haven't left exactly. I'm outside of his house on the sidewalk.**_

_**Dude! Move it! If he sees you just standing there he may get suspicious, especially if he really did kill them. Do you want him to kill you next? But don't leave just hide.**_

_**Jeez Alfred you don't have to scare me half to death.**_

_**Are you out of sight?**_

_**Yeah.**_

_**Good. Now you have to go back in there.**_

_**What?!**_

_**Go. Back. In. There.**_

_**No way! I'm not going to do that! What if he is the killer? What if he kills me?!**_

_**Then we'll have caught him!**_

_**Alfred!**_

_**Sorry, that was a bad joke.**_

_**Yes it was!**_

_**Okay just hang tight until I get out then I'll call you.**_

_**Al!**_

I didn't answer, and shoved my phone back into my pocket. At that moment she rammed the proddy thing she was using in my mouth into my gums and I barely choked back a yelp. I don't think it's bleeding (yet). I silently wondered if it would be worse to stay here or if making a break for the door and facing dad's wrath later would be better.

* * *

Killer

DC International Middle School-front yard

* * *

Today my observation on my next target begins. My last target may have been eliminated only last night, but if I want to keep on track (not that I really have an actual schedule just a basic idea of when I want things done) I need to go ahead and prepare for the next one.

I already know this one will probably be more difficult than the last one. He is stronger and more ready to fight than most of the people in the school. In fact, he will probably try to destroy me the moment he realizes something is strange. Honestly I don't know if I can actually take the guy on. I know he's not all that strong but he's not like the other two, one of which is-was pretty slow in the thinking area, and the other was… well, overly intelligent but his general fighting strength was below par, and his reflexes weren't all that good either.

But I'm not worried. All I have to do is watch him until I find a weakness or a good opening. I kept leaning against the gray concrete building, not taking my eyes off of him, but my sunglasses kept anyone from seeing that. I don't know much about him but apparently he has a younger sibling to pick up, seeing as this is a school that specializes in junior high school grades. For now, I'll just keep my eye on him, and when the time is right, I'll strike.

* * *

Alfred

Dentist's office

* * *

I sighed, relieved, when the old biddy walked out to finally go get the dentist. A few minutes later I paid the money due them -my mother had given it to me before school this morning- and walked out of the dentist's office, free of cavities. I decided I should call Matthew now and did so. "Hey Matt."

"Al! How could you do that to me?"

"Sorry. Are you still at his house?"

"Yeah I'm here, I hid behind the pillar of their gate but I had to move when I saw one of his parents driving up."

"His family is all at their home?"

"A-huh, they're all here."

"Hmm. Stay put, I'll be right there."

"A-" I hung up before he could say anything else. I don't really care to know what he was planning to say right there anyway.

I pulled up on the street the Russian family's house is on. To try and keep them from realizing I was there, I parked outside of Yao's house. He lives a few houses down from Ivan so I would have to walk a little. I slid out of my car and closed the door quietly before walking quickly down the street.

I hadn't realized how cold it's gotten. I mean, the weather isn't unusual for this time of year, it's just, I don't know, I didn't notice it or something? I wish I had my jacket with me. Man, I bet Matthew is freezing. I feel kind of bad for making him stay out here in the cold so long.

"Matthew!" I hissed, trying to keep my voice low. "Matthew!"

"Over here!" he whispered back.

I ran over to the bush his voice seemed to come from and knelt down, pushing some branches out of the way. "You ready to go?"

"What? I thought we were supposed to go back in."

"Well we can't go in right now! There's no way they're asleep yet."

"Wait! We're going in without them knowing?"

"Of course! How can we find anything out if we don't?"

"But that's illegal!"

"Not if you have a search warrant."

"We don't have a search warrant!"

"Ha! Please, of course we do."

"…we do?"

"Yeah this totally warrants a search." I think I saw him mentally face palm.

"Alfred…"

"Come on." I said, yanking him out of the bush before he could say anything more. "We've got to get home before Mom and Dad and preferably Amelia do." He sighed and rolled his eyes but I ignored him and dragged him back to the car.

* * *

7:00pm

* * *

We've been home for almost forty minutes. So far, we're the only ones here. I thought for sure Amelia would be home by now, but she really isn't very predictable. I don't even know if she'll be coming home at all tonight. But at any rate mom and dad should be driving up any time now and we'll be eating dinner shortly.

I paused my game of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and took a swig of my coke. I had all of the lights in my room off but my sixty five inch HD TV lit the room pretty well, even though it is huge. Right now, I'm sitting cross legged on the end of my bed, my cord stretched to its max length across the room. Man I wish my TV was bigger. It would be so cool! Oh well.

"Hey Al your parents are home." Matthew opened the door and poked his head in. "They got take out from Chick-fil-a so you need to get down here."

"Okay I'm coming!" I shouted, jumping up to my socked feet and running out to the hallway. I ran a few steps before stopping and sliding the rest of the way to the stairs and ran down those too. When I reached the fourth step I almost slid again on accident on the slick wood on the stairs. The same wood goes throughout most of my house with the exception of the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the bedrooms.

Right when I was beginning to regain my balance the front door opened and Amelia walked in. She studied me amusedly as I managed to get both feet on the ground and regained a semblance of balance. "I told you, you should come down the stairs slower if you don't want to fall and break your neck."

"Yeah yeah nice to see you too." I straightened my glasses and mock glared at her. She just laughed and flounced past me, dropping her purse next to the stairs. I followed her and we arrived in the dining room right as mom was setting our chicken sandwiches and waffle fries on plates. Our drinks were already set out and she had put ketchup and mustard and ranch on the table. We took our customary seats and my mom, the only truly religious one in my family, said a quick prayer.

"So Amy what did you do after school today?" My Dad asked. Yeah, Amelia is the stereotypical daddy's girl. She's got my old man's heart wrapped around her little finger, and his credit card isn't far behind. I guess as a family we really are pretty close overall though. I'm think that's supposedly becoming unusual, but I'm glad we're close. Mom and Dad do try to keep tabs on all of us kids, at least as much as their jobs allow. Asking about our days is part of that.

"Nothing much, just hung out at the cabin."

"Oh? What did you do there, baby?" Mom asked before taking a massive bite out of her sandwich.

"Well, I was considering throwing a party there for some of my friends on Halloween so I was thinking about what I would do with decorations if I did." Amelia followed suit with her sandwich.

Dad nodded "Sounds good. Did you go to your appointment Alfred?" he gave me a look and pointed one of his waffle fries at me.

I made a face. "Yeah."

"Good! How did it go?"

"I don't have any cavities if that's what you mean. I did get that sad old wind bag again though."

Dad burst out laughing and mom chided me "Alfred! You shouldn't say that!"

"But she is a sad old windbag!"

"He's right you know." Dad spoke up, this time waving his fry at mom "She's been that way since I was a kid."

"What?! She's that old?" I knew she was old but I didn't realize she was _that_ old.

"Yep. She's been around since Moby Dick was a minnow." Mom shot him a glare then shook her head and went back to eating. "So how about you Matthew? Since you were on your own today, what did you do?"

"I just went on a walk then came back here."

"Where did you walk to?"

"Just some of the other's neighborhoods." Dad gave him a strange look but then shrugged and went back to eating. The topic of the conversation quickly changed to my great aunt Rebecca and her impending visit. I forgot about that. You know what this means right? I'm going to have to listen to her talking about her toe fungus every time I'm home. Oh and don't forget her billion surgeries. Ugh. Safe to say, I will be spending as little time as possible at home that week.

* * *

11:46pm

Braginsky home- front yard

* * *

"You ready Matt?"

"No. You realize if we're caught we could be arrested right?"

"Don't be such a downer Matt! We won't be caught. Now let's go." I crept towards the house staying on the driveway so I won't get anything on my shoes that I could track inside. Naturally the first thing I did was look for a way to get inside. The first thing I saw was that the garage door was open about two feet. Why would it be open like that? Whatever, at least I can get in that way. I slid under the door and Matthew followed. There was a light on the other side of the room that looked like a tiny bit of light shining underneath the door, so I walked towards that. After I tripped over the car parked in my path and reached the door I tried the doorknob. Locked of course. I began groping around in the dark, trying to find another way in when a small light from what was probably a flashlight hit me.

I instantly jumped into a fighting stance "Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Relax, it's just me." Matthew whispered. "If you keep yelling like that they'll hear you."

"Oh, eheh, right." I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. Matthew probably rolled his eyes right there, but it was too dark and I couldn't see him, just his light.

"What's that?" Matthew seemed to notice something beside me and I looked down. It seemed to be some sort of shelf with various outdoor type items on it that looked like a big box. There also was some sort of cabinet in the box that had a chain to keep it shut.

Cautiously I undid the chain and pulled open the cabinet. Light came through the cabinet. It wasn't bright light, but it was light. I stuck my head inside the hole and quickly pulled it back out.

"What?" Matthew asked.

"There's a litter box in there!"

"A litter box?"

"You know, like a cat uses!"

"Oh."

I stuck my head back in and looked towards the light. It seemed to be a small square door to the inside of the house. I then looked down at the litter box and wrinkled my nose, then pulled it out of the hole.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to try and crawl in."

"What?!"

"If I can get my shoulders through it won't be a problem."

"What if you can't?"

I shrugged and he sighed and his shadow looked up. I think I heard him mutter something under his breath but I'm not sure.

I crawled into the hole and pushed my head through. After a bit of squirming, a lot of pushing, and help from Matt, I got my shoulders through too, and crashed into the floor. Luckily it didn't make much noise. I stood up and brushed myself off then unlocked and opened the door for Matt. (A/N I have a litter box hole like this in my house and I did have to do this once after my family got back from a trip and we realized we'd left our house keys in the house. Of course, there's no way a boy could get through it when my shoulders only fit through the hole when I turned them at an angle.)

"Could you have been a little louder?"

"Don't be a grouch Matt." I said while fixing my glasses. "Now," I smiled "let's split up and search for clues!"

Matt closed his eyes and rolled them while they were shut. "Don't you think that's a little cliché?"

"No. Now let's go! You take the upstairs, and I'll take the downstairs. Remember, don't leave a stone unturned, and we'll meet back here in thirty minutes or so. Got it?"

He sighed "Got it."

"Great." I crept to the big wooden door on my left and when I looked back over my shoulder I saw Matthew had already disappeared out the other door.

I pulled the big door open and was relieved when it didn't squeak. The kitchen was gray. That's about it. It was gray with wooden cabinets and black appliances. The walls were painted gray, the backsplash was gray, the floors were gray, the granite counters were gray, the table was… well, actually the table was wooden too. It matched the cabinets. There were two little stone bowls on the floor and one slightly bigger one with water in it.

I crept along, quietly humming the mission impossible theme to myself and occasionally ducking behind something. So far I hadn't heard anything moving, and I haven't seen any lights besides the night light that was in the first room. I'm hoping that nobody is awake.

* * *

Matthew

* * *

The stairs were right in the middle of the entry hall. I walked towards them, sure that every step I took woke one of the Russians up. Finally, I reached the carpeted stairs and began climbing up them on my hands and knees. They're going to catch me, I just know it!

When I reached the top everything was quiet and dark. I'm glad I have my keychain flashlight. I turned it on and began to walk down the first corridor. The first room I came to was a bathroom. I shined the light in, and after jumping at the sight of my reflection, decided there was nothing there and moved on.

The second room looked like a billiard room so I looked under the pool table and behind a bar. There really wasn't much there besides a few stacks of vodka.

When I opened the next door I saw it was a bedroom, and there was a lump in the bed. I almost screamed and ran out right then and there, but I quickly calmed myself and reminded myself of my mission.

Slowly tiptoeing inside the (thankfully) carpeted room, I took a good look around me. This room had plain white walls with only one picture; a picture of the Braginsky family. There was a desk on one wall, and a coat hanger next to the door. On another wall there was a large window, and on the wall next to that there was the bed that had a large quilt covering the shape underneath it. The other wall held only a closet.

I need to find out who is in this room. I walked towards the bed and peeked over the covers. The blood drained from my face when I saw a head of platinum blonde hair, but it returned when I realized this was Ivan's older sister, not him. I've only met her once, but she seemed nice that time. I probably won't find anything here though, so I walked back onto the green carpet in the hall and padded to the next door.

It slid open easily and silently, and I moved in. This room was much more elaborate. The walls were painted red and the floors were (unfortunately) hardwood and there was a fancy blue rug next to the bed. The bed itself was a blue canopy styled bed with white covers and blue pillows. I tried to walk across the floor carefully so that I would not make any sounds, and luckily, the person sleeping in the bed didn't seem to hear me when my shoe squeaked one time. When I reached the top of the bed I realized it was Ivan's creepy younger sister Natalia. She… she's something else. Not really something good, just something. I'm not really sure what either.

She moved a little in her sleep and I backed up. That's when I noticed a large knife laying on her nightstand. It was time to leave. I shudder to think what she'd do if she woke up and saw me here. I got out as quickly and quietly as I could.

* * *

Alfred

* * *

So, I have already been through the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, three bathrooms, and a closet. There was absolutely nothing of interest there. The next stop would be a room that looks like a library.

I walked in, not even bothering to be very quiet anymore -since no one seems to be up right now I just don't see the point- and looked around. There were a lot of books. Other than that I really can't say too much about it. It was dark and smelled musty if that's anything. There was a big leather chair with a light next to it though, so I headed in that direction.

I clicked on the light and saw a giant fluffy gray cat sitting in the chair. I think it was a Siberian. I don't know a lot about cats though. The big creature blinked its eyes up at me and stood up, stretching and yawning. I saw it had a collar on so I checked to see what it said. It had the address and the name Russ.

"So your name is Russ huh fat guy?" I ran my hand down his back and he looked up at me innocently "You know, the way you look kind of reminds me of Ivan." He meowed at me, a surprisingly cute sound, and settled back down. I smiled, turned off the light, and walked back out. Matthew should be just about done by now.

* * *

Matthew

* * *

This is the last room. The only other rooms up here are two more bathrooms and the master bedroom and bathroom, which I'm not going to bother with. It's risky enough being here at all.

I opened the door –which squeaked a tiny bit and made me cringe- and tiptoed in. This room was pretty bleak and the first thing that came to my mind was Ivan. To my surprise though, when I looked back at the wall the door was on –the wall the bed faced- I saw that it was painted blue with huge blue sunflowers and little fluffy white clouds at the top. The walls were painted white and the floor was tan. There were some deep red curtains though, that broke the monotony. I didn't even have to move to see Ivan's huge form in the bed. When I got a little closer I saw he was clutching a metal pipe in his sleep. He's so weird.

Suddenly the peaceful quiet of the house was broken with a loud yelp from downstairs. Panic blocked out half of my other senses as I saw Ivan slowly waking up and I darted out into the hall and down the stairs. Oh man Alfred, if we survive this night I am going to kill you.

* * *

Alfred

* * *

Everything was perfectly fine until that little demon cat jumped me! It was a good bit smaller than the Siberian and from the little glance I got before –I think it was a she… it didn't have balls anyway- she jumped me and started hissing and attempting to scratch my eyes out. I let out an involuntary yelp and tried to yank her off my head. I did get her off, but she took my glasses off with her. I immediately dropped to the floor and grabbed my glasses and made a dash for the door.

Matthew was flying down the stairs and making quite a racket. We reached the door to the garage at the same time and slammed into each other, almost falling. By the yelling going on upstairs I'm pretty sure the entire family is awake and coming down the stairs.

I took the lead and opened the door. In a matter of seconds we were out the door and running towards the opening underneath the garage door, not even bothering to shut the door behind us. What's the point? They know we were here. Well not us exactly, just someone. Hopefully.

We raced down the driveway and past the fence. I could hear Matthew's feet pounding behind me ever so slightly slower than my own footsteps. We reached my car and I was in and had the engine started by the time Matt got there. Without a seconds hesitance I slammed my foot on the gas and we were off. We successfully infiltrated the Russians house and escaped! Barely.

**Welp, here's you another crappy chapter! I hope you enjoyed it a little at least. Next week we will see Gilberts little adventure! :D If you're interested I went to a funeral a little while ago, and got yet another insight on death. Personally, I barely knew the woman at all, and everyone knew she was dying for the last several months, but I still felt sorry for her family. Oh, and you know the person that awkwardly coughs every minute or two? Yeah that was me. Stupid cold! Anyway, review, follow, favorite, all that jazz. Please?**

**And yes, Russ the Siberian was Russiacat, and the Russian Blue I named Bella is Belaruscat.**


	7. Vist with a turkey

Please, please, please review! I'm starving from a lack!

Gilbert

October 9, 2012

3:23pm

Beilschmidt house-outside kitchen door

* * *

I pulled out my keys and unlocked the door to my house. Yeah, I know I agreed to go "interrogate" that Sad guy, but first I have to stop by home. Vati said he would probably be home early and if he is home I need to check in with him first or risk his wrath. Yikes. That would not be good. Plus I have to feed mein buddies.

I walked into the kitchen and let out a loud, high pitched whistle before filling my two dogs bowls. I instantly heard several sets of paws running across the floor. It's a good thing Vati likes dogs as much as Ludwig and I do. He permits us to have three pets a piece and five of those six animals are dogs. The other is Gilbird of course.

Ludwig's three dogs Aster, Blackie, und Berlitz ran in first. They are (in this order) a Golden Retriever, a German Shepherd, and a Doberman. My little friend Wurstbert and not so little friend Fritz ran in next. Wurstbert is a Dachshund, thus his name, and Fritz is a Rottweiller. I feel sorry for anyone who ever tries to brake into our house.

Ludwig's dogs greeted me with licks and then went back out the door, most likely to their favorite spots in Luddy's room. Fritz and Wurstbert ran over to me, Wurstbert's tiny little legs worked hard to try and keep up with Fritz, but the bigger dog's longer legs and faster trot beat Wurstbert's run by a mile. I knelt down and rubbed both of their black heads, and received licks from them both. "Is Vati here?" I asked them, standing up. Fritz barked a deep, short bark as if to answer me and walked over to his knewly filled bowl to eat.

I walked out of the kitchen, coughed some, and continued walking until I reached the living room. Vati was not there. Well, there's only one other place he could be if he is home. I walked back through the house until I reached his office. He was there. His head was bent down over his work and his pen was flying across the page. I stood still waiting for Vati to notice me. I don't interrupt him, not ever.

Vati's office is pretty plain really. The walls are dark green, the floor is wood, the desk is wood, and the chairs in front of his desk are green. He has a bookshelf covering one wall and a window to his back. The most interesting thing in the room is a large photograph of my family shortly before Mutti died.

Vati looked the same back then as he does now. It really is remarkable how little he has aged. I hope I'm the same way.

Mutti looks a lot like Vati with her long blonde hair and blue eyes, but she's much shorter and, you know, more feminine.

I of course, am awesome as always, but a lot smaller. Mutti had me dressed in white for the picture. I remember when I was small other kids would tease me and call me a demon. I naturally beat them up instantly. Mutti always said I was her little angel, different but perfect, and that's why she liked to see me dressed in white. She also gave me a small white box with a special engraving on the bottom that says "My precious angel" and has two small garnets made into it above and below the word precious. She gave it to me on my birthday, the last one that she was alive on. That and the necklace Vati gave me when I shot my first deer are my most prized possessions.

Luddy was just a baby Luddy. He looked so unemotional in the picture. So typical. When he was little he was almost never emotional at all. It was really weird. Come to think of it, he still at least puts on an unemotional face most of the time, just like Vati.

"Gilbert." Vati was now looking at me.

I instantly snapped to attention. "Yes sir?"

"How was school?"

"It was good."

"Do you have homework?"

"Not today." He nodded. That is the sign that if I have anything else to say, say it, and if I don't, leave.

"Vati, is it alright if I go out?"

"Ja, just be back before dinner."

"Yes sir." I turned and left the room. There really isn't much to say after that.

I know Vati loves me and Ludwig more than anything in this world but he is very… militaristic. If you were a stranger to us you'd think Vati hates us, but it's just his way of showing us his love. He's not always like that though. Sometimes he's totally opposite of his normal self and relaxes. Those times are really nice. I don't think they'd be nice if Vati was like that all the time though.

Before I bother going to see Sadiq I'll drop my junk off in my room. I ran up the stairs two steps at a time until I finally reached the one-time-attic where my room is. I only have one window so there isn't much natural light. My bed is under the window and I have a desk against one wall, as well as a chest-of-drawers since I don't have a closet. Everything is in its place, like always, and Gilbird is hanging out on my pillow. Instead of a TV –cause Vati won't let me have one in my room- I have a wall of pictures hanging over my small bookshelf stuffed with my journals. There's pictures of Vati, Mutti, Luddy, Eliza, Roddy even, Francis, Antonio, and of course my awesome self. Every time I hang up a new picture I have to rearrange everything so that it is still somewhat symmetrical and orderly. It would drive me insane if they were just randomly up there. It is my room after all.

I chunked my backpack by my desk where it belongs and walked over to my bed. I kneeled down and whistled lowly at Gilbird. He immediately perked up and looked at me. "Hey mein awesome kleiner buddy. I've gotta go out for a while and I need you to stay here, okay?"

He chirped at me and blinked a few times. I'm pretty sure he understands me sometimes. I smiled and rubbed my finger over his head gently. I should probably get going now though, so I left my room and shut the door.

I could hear Feliciano shouting his goodbyes to Ludwig from the second floor so I stopped to look out the window. Sure enough, Ludwig was walking towards the house, Feliciano waving enthusiastically from the sidewalk and Kiku standing beside him, looking a tad bit awkward. I smother some more coughs with my hand (No, I'm_ not_ sick!)and continued down the hallway.

I'm one hundred percent determined to get going before Ludwig has a chance to ask me what I'm doing, so I gallop down the last set of stairs as fast as I can. I know I'm making a lot of noise and Vati is probably glaring in my direction from his office, but I'm sure he'll get over it. Ludwig opened the door and I ran past him. For half a second he was surprised, but then he reacted and managed to grab the hood to my red jacket.

"What?" I said irritably, stopping since I had no choice.

"Where are you going?" he gave me a suspicious look.

"Nowhere. Now let me go."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, but you really should stop running around like you do; you've been sick remember?" He released my shirt.

"Yeah yeah, I know, stop being such a greisen. See you." I shouted, resuming my jog away from the house.

* * *

When I finally got to that Sadiq's house it took them forever to open the door. When they finally did open it I was greeted by a wrinkled old prune with a patch of gray fuzz growing on the top.

"Yes?" the old prune said.

"I'm here to see Sadiq." I said, crossing my arms. I'm pretty sure this is the right house. I'm not entirely sure though because I've never been here before.

"Who are you?" He asked me, giving me a weird look.

"I'm awesome, that's all you need to know." he frowned at me. "Sadiq knows me." Somewhat anyway. At least my face and probably my name. I think. Whatever. At the very least I know his. He used to beat up Elizabeta when we were small. That's about as far as my knowledge of him goes. That and he hates- or hated I guess- Heracles, which is clearly why I'm here today.

He gave me a long hard look and for a moment I was sure he wouldn't let me in. I choked back a cough as we stared at each other. I will show no weakness.

"Hey old man what's the hang up?" I heard a loud obnoxious voice yell as footsteps thumped towards the door. Some people say I'm loud and obnoxious so clearly they've never listened to this guy talk. At the very least I don't use all that weird slang.

Sadiq's masked face (why does he feel the need to wear that thing anyway? Like he's not weird enough as it is) appeared next to the old prune. He looked at me confusedly for a minute before a light-bulb seemed to light up in his head. "You're that weirdo albino that used to hang out with that wimpy weirdo Elizabeta all the time. Garret right?"

I frowned. I don't like it when people identify me as "albino" even though I am one. I mean, it's like someone saying "that guy with the defect" or something. It makes me feel like people think I'm weak or not as good as them. Not to mention it's annoying. "It's Gilbert, and ja, Eliza used to be my best friend."

"Ah okay. So what do you want?" he was still talking over fuzzy prune's shoulder.

"For you to get rid of this guy."

He seemed to think that was hilarious, while old prune just frowned deeper. I took the opportunity to cough quietly while his laughter covered it up. Sadiq snorted as he stopped his outburst of laughter. "Ya heard the man!"

The old guy gave Sadiq a look and then did as he was told and left.

"So whaddya want?"

"I er..." I thought for a second about how I should say this. Maybe I should do it like cops do in the movies. "I wanted to talk to you about Heracles death." Nah, the direct approach is the best approach.

His face darkened considerably. "I guess ya wanna come in then."

"Ja." I nodded.

He jerked his head backward and walked down the hall heavily. I followed and shut the door behind me. I can't stand it when people leave doors open. It's so... Disorderly. I can't stand disorder.

His house so far looks extremely Turkish. I guess that makes sense though, they are Turkish after all.

He drug me all the way to the backyard and sat down on a chair and stared at me. I sat down in a chair facing his and opened my mouth to speak but he cut me off.

"Look I'll go ahead and tell you what I told the cops this morning. I didn't kill 'im."

"You talked to the police this morning?"

"They pulled me out of class a little after it started. Said someone told em I hated Jerkules."

I wonder what it was like being questioned by the police. I mean, I talked to them a little but it was just in the principal's office. And all they really asked was what I saw. After I told them it was pretty much nothing (I didn't even see his head, not that that makes me upset) and they let me go. Toris on the other hand, they took down to their headquarters. He didn't come back that day and I know Sadiq was there at the end of the day today, as was Arthur who spent most of the morning with the police himself. But then, Toris doesn't seem to have the strongest mental constitution either. I don't really blame him though since that commie b****** likes to pick on him so much.

"Ah. So what were you doing when he died?" I sniffed, holding back a sneeze.

"Do you even know when he died?" he asked me with a smirk on his face. I guess it's pretty clear that he's got the better of me.

I rolled my eyes and frowned. "No, not really."

"According to the police it was between six and seven last night."

"Okay okay fine, whatever. What were you doing then?"

"I was here eating dinner with my family." I nodded and went to stand up (it's obvious if he was here he couldn't have murdered Heracles so why should I stay?) but then he started saying something else so I stopped to listen.

"You know, I didn't totally hate him." he said quietly. "I mean, I did but I didn't ya know? At first when I heard he was dead I was super happy, but by the time school had finished... I dunno. Life's not gonna quiet be the same without him here. Who am I gonna fight with? I'll have Kiku to myself now but even that won't be quiet as cool without having Heracles to boast to about it. And I never did get to pound him, not without him getting me pretty good too."

I never would've guessed that Sadiq would actually miss Heracles at all. Of course, his reasons are a bit odd but he is too. I guess it's kind of like my relationship with glasses, the stupid prick. But of course, I'm a much better fighter than Roderick so I can beat him up. Unless Eliza jumps into it, then I have a real battle on my hands.

He started laughing loudly all of a sudden. "Ha! But I win in the end! I'm still alive and he ain't! That would be enough to piss him off big time!" Maybe, but I think he's got more things to be pissed off about being dead than that. Like maybe never being an adult or having a job or a girlfriend or a wife or a kid or a car or maybe being robbed of most of his life. Some of those things might be enough to piss a guy off.

"It's a good thing he's dead." a squeaky high pitched little kid's voice came from behind Sadiq and I looked around his chair. It looked kinda like a smallish version of Sadiq.

"Yo little bro how's it hangin?"

The little kid glanced and nodded at him then returned to glaring at me. "I would have gladly killed that b****** myself if I could have. If I ever meet him I would thank this killer for killing that Grecian." Sadiq's little brother is really creepy.

"Ok, I think I'll go now." I said, standing up abruptly. I would rather not stick around with this weirdo and his creepy little brother any more than I have too. "Uh, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then Sadiq."

"Yeah see you round whitey." I felt a shiver shoot up my spine before it went rigid.

My teeth clenched and hands balled into fists as I turned around slowly. "What did you just call me?"

"Whitey. You gotta problem with that?" he smirked, tilting his head a little.

I lunged at him and slammed my fist hard into his jaw. It. Is. On.

* * *

6:00pm

Hospital front desk

* * *

"Really Gilbert, first a cold and now this?! What am I going to do with you boy!" I looked down ever so slightly.

Vati is angry. Very angry. He'll cool down by the time we get home though. He understands why I'm so sensitive about my coloring.

Sadly that whole fight ended with me having a black eye, a fractured rib, a semi swollen lip, and random bruises in various places. On the upside though, Sadiq has a fractured arm, a broken nose, a badly bruised jaw and a bloody scratch across his forehead (Oh come on, scratching is totally allowed. It's not girly or wimpy either! Seriously! Eliza has done it to me some and it hurts like heck!). If that stupid old prune hadn't called an ambulance and jumped into the fight with weirdo jr. I would've won for sure.

"Come along Gilbert." oh great. I hope he doesn't give me a "talk" on the way home. Ludwig is here so maybe he won't.

"Yes Vati." I said humbly, dragging along behind him. God I feel like such a little kid right now.

Vati opened the back door for me out of consideration for my poor ribs and I slid in, grunting a bit as my chest area moved. Luddy shot me an annoyed look from the front seat as Vati slammed the door.

"Great mess you've gotten yourself into this time bruder." good. Since he's up front Vati isn't mad enough to give me a talk. I won't be doing much tonight though. Maybe Vati or Luddy will make us some wurst.

* * *

**A/N I'd hoped to get this up a week ago. Actually, it's been finished I just hadn't posted it yet. Stay tuned to see Francis and Arthur! Possibly in the same chapter too; I'm just not sure yet. Oh, and sorry if I ramble when I'm writing from Prussia's POV, I think he's a lot deeper than he lets on and when I'm writing his thoughts it kind of shows. I couldn'd resist making Wurstbert. :3**

**PS have you guys heard about the meteor in Russia? I keep seeing rocks brusing Russia in my mind.**

**Greisen-German- old lady**


	8. Set and match!

**Countries who have seen this so far: United States of America, Finland, Canada, Poland, United Kingdom, El Salvador, Singapore, Chile, Iceland, Vietnam, Australia, Mexico, Malaysia, Sweden, Venezuela, Russian Federation, Philippines, Netherlands, China, (new ones now! :D) Indonesia, Germany (yayz, another Axis!), Thailand, France (yayz, another Ally), Argentina, Puerto Rico, Qatar, and Brazil. Thanks you guys!**

Arthur

3:24pm

Washington International High School - front lawn

* * *

I run across the school courtyard, frantically attempting to reach the bus before it takes off. Kiku is inside that bus and I would rather avoid going to his house if at all possible.

But of course, right as I arrived at the bus it took off. Darn it. Stupid bus. Now I have to go to his house. I've been there before, but that was a long, long time ago. I don't really want to have to go there again, especially not on this kind of occasion.

I begin jogging down the street towards Kiku's house. I don't actually know if I'll actually walk all the way there… I might just catch a bus to his neighborhood and go from there. It's really a pretty long walk to his house. Yeah I think that's what I'll do.

I stop when I reach the first bus stop I come to. I'm already getting somewhat out of breath too. I think I'll have to work on my jogging skills. Football –or soccer as it's called here- should help with that some.

There's an old woman, a teenage girl with earphones in her ears, a big black guy with saggy pants who keeps glaring at me, and a man in a business suit that's glancing at his watch. The bus arrives a minute before 3:30 and I climb on, the business suit-guy right behind me.

When I sit down, I have the bad fortune of sitting next to the black guy and the teenage girl. The blonde girl ignored me at first, choosing instead to flip through a magazine with one earphone out, and glancing at me every now and then. The black guy… well, he keeps glaring at me.

"Excuse me, is there something the matter?" I finally ask the guy, feeling very uncomfortable.

Out of the corner of my eye I notice the girl perk up. The black guy's frown deepens though. "You think you better than me or sumthin don't ya?!"

What? "I-"

"Jus cuz you go to dat big fancy school, you think you can come up in here like you own da place!"

"I assure you sir, I-"

"Don't be givin me none of dat crap! I seen the way you sat yo butt up in here! You think you're so smart! Well you ain't! Whats yo IQ anyway? Mine is probably over twenty! I bet chu can't beat dat!"

Above 20? Oh my. He doesn't even know how the IQ system works. My sweat dropping is interrupted by loud laughter bursting forth from the girl next to me.

"Wow, what a loser!" she shouts, still laughing. She closes her magazine and leans over me. "You should go back to your gang and leave the cute Brit alone."

"Hey, keep yo nose outta our biniss!"

"It's totally one sided, duh. I bet your IQ _is_ just over 20."

"You tryin ta trick me?"

"You don't need me to trick you."

"What?!"

I clear my throat and stand up as the bus rolls to a stop, and beat a hasty retreat. That was just weird.

From here, it's not very far to Kiku's house thankfully, so I start moving. It's a short jog before I'm there, staring up at his strange modern looking house. It's white and gray and black, complete with odd sharp angles and an abnormal roof covered in solar panels. There is a very out of place looking Japanese garden in the front yard.

I step quickly down the path to the house, and knock on the almost absurdly normal-looking door. No answer. I try again, and ring the bell. After waiting for about ten minutes and trying the bell multiple times I decide that he's not home. Maybe I should check at some of his friend's houses.

* * *

4:00pm

Vargas house-front door

* * *

"What are you doing here eyebrows?" Lovino snorted, crossing his arms. It would have to be him, wouldn't it? This really isn't my day. It took me forever to find my way here, I mean; I'm not really friends with any of the Vargas'.

"Is your brother here?"

"No. I think'a he's at potato b******'s house. Why do you wanna know?" he glares at me and I resist rolling my eyes.

"I just wanted to know if he knew where Kiku might be." I'm trying not to get annoyed but I don't too much like Lovino Vargas.

"If you're'a going to go see him, tell that b****** to get back here now! Grandpa will'a be home soon." He slammed the door in my face. Yes, that is Lovino. Pleasant fellow.

Beilschmidt house-front door

4:10pm

"What?!" I asked, incredulous.

"Ja, he left with Feliciano. I believe they went home." Ludwig stood watching me inquisitively, his blue eyes staring down at me.

"That's just bloody wonderful!" I snorted, stomping towards the street.

"What's wrong with you?" Ludwig asked, peering at me from the door.

"Nothing!" I yelled, continuing my stomp down the street.

* * *

4:23pm

Honda's house-front yard

* * *

I bang on the door to Kiku's house. I am more than sick of trying to track him down, and I'm not in the mood to be courteous anymore!

It clicks open and Kiku stares at me. "Arthur-kun, what are you doing here?"

I try to collect my thoughts. What am I doing here? Oh, that's right. "I wanted to ask you some questions."

"Questions?"

"About Heracles."

"Oh," he looks slightly downcast at that. Kiku is a great deal more popular than Heracles and Sadiq put together, and his closest friends are Ludwig and Feliciano, so he wasn't that close to Heracles. I don't think he could take the Greek and the Turk's fighting over him, so he kind of stayed away.

"Come in," he said, stepping to the side.

"If it's all the same to you, could we stay outside?" I would rather not go in. I want to escape as soon as possible.

"Alright," he said, somewhat confusedly, and steps out with me.

"So is there anyone you think would like to kill Heracles?" I got right to the point. I don't want to waste any more time.

"The obvious one to think of would be Sadiq, but I don't know about that. He doesn't seem the killing type." Yeah, more like the beat-him-to-the-point-where-he's-barely-breathing sort of type.

"Hm. Did Heracles do or say anything strange before… you know," I couldn't quite bring myself to say it. The guy is dead, and it just doesn't seem right.

He looked thoughtful. "I don't… think so. Wait, I saw Bella-san whispering something to him a little while ago."

"That's not that odd," I say, somewhat disappointed. I was hoping maybe we had something.

"No, I don't suppose so, but they weren't friends," Kiku said, staring out at the street.

That's true. Come to think of it, I've never seen them together at all. I didn't even know they knew each other. Maybe we should talk to Bella as well.

"Hmm, thanks for your help Kiku," I say, briskly moving towards the walkway.

"You're welcome Arthur-kun," Kiku manages to say as I disappear down the walk. Now I can tell Alfred I made some progress, so maybe he'll stop acting like such a big-shot. For a while at least.

* * *

Francis

4:35 pm

Karpusi house-front yard

* * *

It looks like an ancient Greek building. From the dome on the top, to the pillars holding up the white marble porch, to the statues of Greek gods on the lawn, ending with the giant Greek flag hanging on the side of the house. And I thought my parents are patriotic. Next to this we look like we're ashamed to be French.

Ah well, it's time I get to work. Honestly I'm dreading it, but I volunteered so there's nothing I can do. I walk up the walkway and mount the porch. I can't shake the feeling that I'm stepping into another world.

I press the little button that triggers the doorbell and wait. And wait some more. After five minutes I ring the bell again.

Finally, a kid who looks around 14 or so opens the door. He has brown hair that reminds me a lot of Heracles. His eyes are rimmed with red and slightly puffy at the moment. It's clear he's been crying, though he probably wouldn't admit it.

He looks me up and down, taking in my school uniform. He looks a little startled, before taking on a more irritated look. "Why are you here?" he asked quietly.

"I wanted to ask you some questions," I say, trying to keep my voice gentle.

He looked at me for a moment. "About Heracles," he whispered, it sounding more like a statement than a question.

"Yes," I said.

"I'll tell you what I already told the police; I don't know anything. Heracles used to have a lot of enemies, but all of those are gone except for Sadiq. But Sadiq's little brother, Tanner, is my friend, so I know Sadiq pretty well too. I know Sadiq would never kill anyone, Heracles included. I just wish they could've got along, before..." he trailed off and bit his lip looking down. I saw a tear force its way out before he said "That's all I know," and shut the door in my face. I don't think he wanted me to know he was crying again. I don't blame him, for crying that is. I would cry a lot if my little sister died.

It looks like I'll be telling mon captain pretty much nothing. It's not my fault so I have no problem with it.

* * *

Killer

* * *

Love. That's it. That is the key to getting my next victim. This guy who seems to show no obvious weakness. See, love is the most powerful weapon in the world. It can be used for, or against you. It's pretty simple really. It gives you strength, reason to live, hope, and a will so strong almost nothing can defeat you. But, it is also a weapon for your enemies. In the case of my victim, I will use it against him to make him powerless. It's so simple too. His little sister, who he loves so dearly, will be my leverage. By threatening to kill her, or even just maim her, I will be able to make him do anything, like a puppet on a string. He won't dare to try and stop me. Even if he tells the police who I am, there is no guarantee I won't be able to get to her before they get to me. Even if he tries to stop me himself I may get away and hurt or kill her before he can do anything. It's perfect. Fool-proof.

I flip the channels on the TV boredly. I have to do something. I have been dubbed a serial killer. They even gave me a name: Bloody Flag. I'm guessing it's because I've set up both of my killings with my victim's country's flag. But, despite all of that, I still haven't been discussed on national news. That's a problem. I'm not sure if I've been discussed in Poland or Greece, but I'd be surprised if I haven't. After all, everything (at least negative) to do with ambassadors and especially when it's something nasty from the host countries, seem to be a huge deal in the country the ambassador is from. That's good.

After a while I finally settle down and start watching an old Colombo episode. I find these murder shows, be they old or new, inspiring for my own situation. When the episode gets to the climax and Colombo is about to expose the two college boys as the murderers, an idea hits me. I know how to make them see me more. I'll force them to give me the attention I want. And it will be easy as pie.

**A/N** Sorry for the sucky chapter. I don't even know what that stuff with Arthur on the bus was. :/ Ah well. Please review anyway. And does anybody know who the killer is going to kill next?


End file.
